Khris Middleton was ejected from Thursday night’s 120-119 overtime win by the Milwaukee Bucks over the Brooklyn Nets for a pretty ridiculous flagrant foul call.
Brooklyn’s Bruce Brown was on a breakaway after getting a steal and slowed down as he approached the basket for a dunk attempt. Slowing down allowed Middleton to catch up to him. The Bucks forward fouled Brown by slapping at his elbow, causing Brown to fall.
Khris Middleton was ejected after this foul. https://t.co/WblBFZEdwR
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) April 1, 2022
Middleton was called for a Flagrant-2 Foul and ejected. Brown made both of his free throws to put Brooklyn up 101-96.
The Bucks fell behind by nine points with three minutes left but came back to tie the game and send it to OT where they won. And they got the victory even without Middleton.
Bucks guard Jrue Holiday defended his teammate for the foul.
Re: Khris Middleton's Flagrant 2, #Bucks guard Jrue Holiday asked: "Do you let him have the dunk? Two and a half, 3 weeks from now I'm not letting him have the dunk. I know it looked bad & we don't want anybody to be hurt but I don't want him to have it."https://t.co/BjSHOIzHNY
— Jim Owczarski (@JimOwczarski) April 1, 2022
Sure, the foul was unnecessary and intentional, but to categorize it as a Flagrant-2 and eject Middleton felt completely wrong. There was nothing excessive about the foul, which is why it shouldn’t have been considered Flagrant-2. The league should downgrade it upon a review.
