Things got weird in the Denver Nuggets’ loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on Tuesday night.
Late in the game, Nuggets head coach Mike Malone exchanged verbal jabs with both Blake Griffin and his own rookie, Emmanuel Mudiay. The two incidents kind-of-sort-of happened simultaneously.
First, Malone received a technical for getting into it with Griffin during the final two minutes of the fourth quarter. CBS Sports’ James Herbert provided the context:
After DeAndre Jordan finished an alley-oop dunk and the Nuggets called a timeout, Clippers forward Blake Griffin and Denver head coach Michael Malone crossed paths and exchanged words. It’s unclear what was said, but it quickly escalated to the point that Malone yelled across the court at Griffin and had to be restrained by his players. Malone earned a technical foul. The score was 110-93 for the Clippers at that point, by the way.
All in a night’s work for Malone.
But, on Tuesday, he was working overtime.
Around that same time, in Denver’s ensuing huddle, Malone got into it with Mudiay. Nate Timmons of BSNDenver.com had the visual evidence:
Michael Malone and Emmanuel Mudiay in a heated exchange on #Nuggets bench. pic.twitter.com/UMjuwfmUWW
— Nate Timmons (@NateTimmonsBSN) November 25, 2015
Afterward, Malone would downplay both spats.
With Griffin, he decided to take the blame, per Christopher Dempsey of the Denver Post:
Malone said the technical foul after getting into it with Clippers star Blake Griffin was unacceptable behavior on his part.
— Chris Dempsey (@dempseypost) November 25, 2015
Malone also added some background to the altercation in question:
Malone: "They were frustrated with us fouling DeAndre. And, trust me, I'm not a fan of it."
— Chris Dempsey (@dempseypost) November 25, 2015
Malone: "But it's a rule you can use & we felt that we had a better chance of fouling than allowing them to take a shot. So we went to it."
— Chris Dempsey (@dempseypost) November 25, 2015
Malone: "I think they were frustrated with that, some words were exchanged and that's what happened." #Nuggets
— Chris Dempsey (@dempseypost) November 25, 2015
The Clippers? Complaining about something that, while annoying, is totally legal?
Shocking.
But not really.
On the Mudiay front, Malone took the “Lovers love to fight” approach, also per Dempsey:
Malone on verbal spat w/Mudiay: "Everything is fine.. By no means is there an issue with Emmanuel or anybody else on this team."
— Chris Dempsey (@dempseypost) November 25, 2015
Mudiay himself would chalk up the exchange to competitive fire:
Mudiay: "It's just both of us being competitors. It probably was my fault, I could have been doing a lot more." #Nuggets
— Chris Dempsey (@dempseypost) November 25, 2015
Talk about you’re anti-climatic endings.
Look, you’ve indubitably been there before, on the court or pitch or rink or field or whatever, participating in some sort of exhibition matchup. No matter the stakes, you’re engaged, you’re fiery. You get angry, frustrated, incensed. Words are sometimes exchanged. And, afterwards, it’s no big deal.
Imagine how competitive, how attached, you would be at the professional level, when millions of dollars and championships and national recognition is on the line. These verbal dustups are going to happen, both of the friendly fire and opposing sides persuasion.
All you can do is, in the words of Taylor Swift, shake it off and move on—which is what Malone, as well as Mudiay, are ready to do.
