Two of the NBA’s most mercurial personalities went at it before Sunday’s game.
Isaiah Stewart of the Detroit Pistons had an incident with Desmond Bane of the Orlando Magic before Game 1 of their first-round playoff series on Sunday. Video went viral this week showing the episode, which took place during pregame introductions at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, Mich.
When the lights had dimmed for the Pistons’ home introductions, Bane was seen attempting to dribble onto the court, seemingly to disrupt the fanfare. That led to Stewart sharply grabbing Bane and moving him aside.
Stewart was also seen making various shooing motions towards Bane with his hand. You can see the video at the link here.
Bane and the No. 8 seed Magic got the last laugh in the end. They earned a stunning 112-101 victory over the No. 1 seed Pistons to immediately wrestle away homecourt advantage in the series.
Meanwhile, those were probably the two characters you would expect in the Pistons-Magic series to get into it. Bane made headlines multiple times this season for instigating hostilities with opponents, and Stewart obviously has an even lengthier history of confrontations (including once sucker-punching an opponent in the arena tunnel before a game).
