The Georgetown Basketball team was involved in a pretty nasty fight during an exhibition game against a professional team in China this morning, but because it was oversees and took place so early, there aren't a lot of accounts of exactly what happened. Well Gene Wang of the Washington Post was in attendance, and he has some new details about exactly what happened.
Georgetown Coach John Thompson III pulled his players off the court with 9 minutes 32 seconds left in the game and the scored tied at 64 after a chaotic scene in which members of both teams began throwing punches and tackling one another.
That much we knew. But the new information is about what caused the Georgetown team to be so upset. Apparently it was an extremely physical game that the refs failed to officiate. And when they did, they were calling fouls on Georgetown in nearly a 3-1 ratio. That got under their skin. It got so chippy that both benches had actually emptied once before in this game.
Immediately before the fighting began, Bayi forward-center Hu Ke was called for a foul against Georgetown’s Jason Clark. The senior guard clearly took exception to the hard foul and said so to Hu, triggers an exchange of shoves. That’s when players from the Georgetown and Bayi benches ran onto the court, and bedlam ensued.
One of the scariest wrinkles is that sometime during the brawl, chairs started coming onto the court from the fans and others. One reportedly hit senior center Henry Sims.
As Thompson and his staff summoned players together and began escorting them off the court, the group had to dodge plastic water bottles being hurled from the stands. Once they reached the safety of the locker room, the team immediately gathered all its equipment and headed for the buses outside.
The whole story is pretty crazy, especially considering this was supposed to be a diplomatic game. A friendly of sorts. Certainly didn't play out that way. But no one was seriously hurt, so we can all be thankful for that. It will be interesting to see what comes of this though.