Pelicans star Zion Williamson spoke postgame about the skirmish that occurred late in the team's 106-95 loss to the Miami Heat. Following a foul by Kevin Love to prevent Williamson from getting an easy score after stealing the ball from Jimmy Butler, Naji Marshall and Butler got into an altercation on the court.
Their back-and-forth then led to an altercation between Heat center Thomas Bryant and Jose Alvarado on the sideline, causing massive chaos. Eventually, the referees rendered their decision, ejecting Butler, Marshall, Alvarado, and Bryant.
"I wasn't tripping about KLove cause he was protecting me on my fall… All the sudden I see Butler lunging toward Naji… It's hard not to love shit like that. Its competitive… People riding for their teammates"
— Zion Williamson on the Pels-Heat altercation pic.twitter.com/J0P2gFT8Kv
— Pelicans Film Room (@PelsFilmRoom) February 24, 2024
Williamson addressed the situation from his vantage point and openly said that he wasn't upset at Kevin Love. “I wasn't tripping about K Love because he actually protected me on my fall. So I just kind of just got up and was walking away, and I think all of a sudden, I see Butler kind of lunging towards Naji. So I'm Trying to get there like ‘Yo, relax like, what's going on?' I think a minute kind of went by, and all of a sudden, Bryant and Jose kind of getting at it.”
He continued, “And it was a lot of, a lot of stuff going on. But when I watched the film, I was like, okay, you can like clearly see how it happened. But I mean, like I said before, it's hard not to love shit like that. It's just competitive. It's people competing, people riding for their teammates. So that's all that is.”
Williamson also talked about selling contact so he can get foul calls, alluding to him reluctantly having to do it to get an appropriate whistle.
“Yeah, no, it is definitely new for me because I wasn't taught to play the game like that. But with the league we're in, yeah, I gotta, if I want to get a call, sometimes I have to sell it in order for the ref to see it because sometimes the ref don't see it. I'll give him that. Sometimes it is hard to see, but I just got to sell it better.”
As the Pelicans and Heat await to see if there is any additional action by the NBA against the players involved in Friday's altercation, both teams gear up for their next game.
The Pelicans look to regroup against the Bulls on Sunday at 7 PM EST. Meanwhile, the Heat look to continue their winning momentum against the Sacramento Kings on Monday at 10 PM EST.
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