Jalen Duren pulled a Metta World Peace during Friday’s game.
The Detroit Pistons center Duren was ejected against the Houston Rockets for elbowing Rockets guard Amen Thompson. In the second quarter at Toyota Center in Houston, Tex., Duren was running into rebounding position and ended up elbowing Thompson in the head and face area.
Here is the video.
Jalen Duren has been ejected for this elbow on Amen Thompson.
— Hoop Central (@TheHoopCentral) October 25, 2025
pic.twitter.com/0fWLJUIheG
The incident also led to a funny reaction from Rockets star Kevin Durant, who told his teammate Thompson, “He f–ked you up” in reference to Duren.
Upon review, Duren was assessed a flagrant 2 foul and automatically ejected from the game. He finished with six points and six rebounds in his 12 minutes of action.
Meanwhile, Thompson, who went on to split his two ensuing flagrant free throws, finished with a modest 10-4-1 line in his 30 minutes of play. In the end though, the Pistons went on to beat the Rockets by a final score of 115-111.
The fourth-year center Duren, who is still only 21 years old, is not really known as a dirty player. In fact, some would bestow that label on the 22-year-old Thompson, who has been involved in multiple on-court scuffles during his brief NBA career (including one that occurred during the preseason just last week). But during Friday’s game, Thompson was very much the victim of what looked like an extremely painful elbow from the 6-foot-10, 250-pound big man Duren.
