DownToBuck doesn’t usually deal excessively in footage of fights. Part of the reason is that the NBA doesn’t really like having clips of fights getting more attention than clips of actual basketball being played. Part of the reason is that I’m not a violent person in real life and watching fights makes me anxious. The third part is that fights are not a “highlight” in any sense of the word, since they are always a negative occurrence that nobody wants to see happen (unless you’re some kind of roided-out testosterone monster who only feels excitement when fists are being thrown).
But when a player who’s being featured in a highlight video happens to be involved in an altercation, I’ll show the footage. It’s part of the story of their game, so it gets in the video. Also, I like the little boost of view counts that I get from putting the word “fight” in the title of the video.
If my hunch is correct on this one, I’ll get more than just a “little” boost from labeling this video as a fight video, because, as you’ll soon see, Elfrid Payton completely acts like a bitch at the end of this game. I’m not that fond of calling players “bitches” either, because most bitch accusations are misplaced, but Payton was completely a bitch when he took exception to Jae Crowder stealing the ball with less than a minute to go and the game practically over. Just a total bitch. In the aftermath of his bitchy shove, a lot more players got involved, and I’m not going to bother dissecting exactly what happened, but I’m guessing there’s going to be a lot of fines and possibly some suspensions coming out of this one.
Payton’s double-double is nearly irrelevant in the face of his absolute bitch move. The passing and shot-making…who cares? If you care, you can watch the first two-thirds of this video, otherwise, you can skip to 2:20 and watch the sparks fly.