There are hard fouls, and then there’s what Hornets forward Jason Smith did to Blake Griffin on Thursday night. After Smith turned the ball over with a lousy pass, it ended up in the hands of Griffin. Sensing that Griffin was more than likely going to throw down a thunderous on the other end of the court, Smith got back to play defense in a hurry — if you want to call it that. As you can see from the video above that Eye on Basketball passed along, Smith straight up destroyed Griffin by laying a shoulder into him. There was absolutely no effort to go for the ball and the hit looked like one that belongs on the gridiron.
Smith was called for a Flagrant 2 foul which is an automatic ejection, and I’d be shocked if a suspension isn’t on its way. Despite the fact that he immediately threw his arms up as if the contact was unintentional when the play happened, Smith apologized after the game.
“I didn’t want to give him an easy layup (but) there are a ton better ways to go about it,” he said according to Hornets.com.
If I may play the role of mom for a second, sorry just isn’t going to cut it this time, mister.
