LeBron James' first home game as a member of the Los Angeles Lakers will certainly be remembered for the Hollywood drama it provided fans in attendance at the Staples Center on Saturday night.
With just over four minutes left in the fourth quarter with the Houston Rockets leading LeBron and Lakers by a single point, Lakers point guard Rajon Rondo and Rockets playmaker Chris Paul came face-to-face and triggered exchanged a series of shots in what turned into a pretty serious altercation between the two high-profile Western Conference clubs.
Rondo and Paul were ejected along with Lakers forward Brandon Ingram, who dished out a haymaker of his own after the two point guards went at it. All three players are expected to receive sizeable suspensions for their actions in what was a chippy affair.
After the dust settled and the Rockets came away with a 124-115 victory, reporters caught up with members of both clubs that weren't directly involved in the mix-up to get their sides of the shenanigans, including Carmelo Anthony, who accused Rondo of triggering the fight by spitting in the face of Paul.
"That's unacceptable," Anthony told reporters post-game, who signed a one-year, league veteran minimum deal worth $2.4 million with the Rockets in the summer.
"You don’t do that. You don’t do that, to nobody. In sports, on the streets, that’s blatant disrespectful right there."
Anthony stood next to Paul during the fight, and while Carmelo laid the blame on Rondo for sparking the incident. an interesting conspiracy grew legs on Twitter that the saliva may've inadvertently come from Anthony in the form of some friendly fire.
“We all know what happened," continued Anthony. "Ain’t no need to keep going back and forth about that."
As for LeBron, he took the more diplomatic approach and despite pulling his good friend Chris Paul out of the fray.
"I didn't see anything and I didn't say nothing to my team after the game."
"We was right there, it was a one-point game and we had opportunities to win the game. I mean, I just tried to calm things down, that’s all, play basketball."
Lance Stephenson, who was present in the trenches, offered up a heftier and more pointed take of the incident.
"I thought like (Paul) shouldn’t have put his hand in Rondo’s face. You hit someone in the face, you know what’s going to happen after that."
James Harden fully understood why his teammate showed his fingers in Rondo's face.
"Chris had to stand up for himself. It is what it is. I don’t care what man, where, at any point in time, any NBA game or in the streets."
The history between Paul and Ronjo definitely didn't help diffuse the situation.
Like the punches themselves, the takes came flying in with NBA players and around the league and celebrities chiming in on Twitter on all of the theatrics.
Sitting courtside in all of this was none other than Floyd Mayweather himself, who to the surprise of no one, seemed to enjoy the melee.
ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski expects that suspensions are likely to be handed out on Sunday.
Despite the Lakers being 0-2 to start the season, the buzz around this Southern California team is already quite noteworthy with the NBA season not even yet a week old.
(h/t Martin Rogers and Josh Peter of USA Today Sports)
