Thabo Sefolosha dismissed the notion that he did anything to cause an issue with Carmelo Anthony or that he flopped during the incident in Wednesday night’s Hawks-Knicks game.
Knicks coach Jeff Hornacek said Thursday that Sefolosha had his arms around Anthony’s neck and that did not blame his star for the reaction that resulted in a Flagrant Foul 2 and ejection. Anthony said Sefolosha flopped on the play.
Sefolosha and Anthony got tangled up fighting for a rebound late in the second quarter of the Hawks’ 102-98 overtime victory. Replay shows Anthony had one hand around the throat and then a swung with his other hand that appeared to connect with Sefolosha. Both players had to be separated after the incident and were initially assessed technical fouls. However after officials reviewed the play, Anthony was given the flagrant foul and ejected.
“I don’t blame (Anthony) for what happened, honestly,” Hornacek told reporters Thursday, the day following the incident. “If you watch the replay, you watch the action, the guy had his arms wrapped around his neck. You know it’s like I want to sometimes go to the referee and wrap my arms around their neck and say, ‘What are you going to do? You just going to stand there?’ You’re going to get the guy off you. It’s a natural reaction. You’re not going to let a guy grab you around the neck. To me, that’s more inadvertent. It’s a reaction. If someone grabs you up there, you throw your hands up.”
On Friday, Sefolosha declined to comment about Hornacek’s statement other than “I don’t have much to say about that.”
Anthony, who refused to speak to reporters after the game, said that Sefolosha flopped. He also said the upgrade to a flagrant foul was in part because of the fan reaction to the incident being shown several times on the Philips Arena scoreboard.
“I don’t think it was anything Sefolosha was doing as far as being overly physical or anything like that. It was just a battle, we were both trying to go for it. Got tangled up,” Anthony told reporters. “He did his European and flopped a little bit.”
Sefolosha also had little to say about Anthony’s statement, but reiterated what he said after the game that he was punched in the face.
“I don’t have much to say about that either,” Sefolosha said. “Whoever wants to look at the tape, it shows exactly what happened. There is no need to go back and forth. I’m playing basketball and I get hit in the face. I’m not expecting that.”
Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer stood by the NBA’s review and decision.
“I would just say that the referees, the league, they’ve made an unbiased, as neither a Knick or a Hawk, determination that it was a flagrant two and he should be ejected,” Budenholzer said. “I think the video stands for itself. Things happen in a game. I don’t think any of us want it to be part of the game. Everybody has probably been on both sides of it. Thabo is a heck of a defender and I would take issue with somebody saying that about Thabo. Everybody has their own side.”
The teams meet again Jan. 16 in New York in a Martin Luther King Jr. Day matinee.
