Coach Bob Donewald Jr. of the Iowa Energy apparently needs to spend some time reviewing the rules of engagement after two D-League teammates were ejected for fighting each other.
It’s not all that uncommon for two players to be ejected from a basketball game after a fight breaks out.
It’s not even unheard of for both players to come from the same team.
But being ejected after fighting with each other? Yeah, that’s kind of new.
In a NBA Development League game Tuesday night in Des Moines, Iowa Energy teammates Jarnell Stokes and Kalin Lucas were tossed in the third quarter after getting into a fight during a timeout.
With 2:29 to go in the quarter and Iowa leading 82-78, Stokes—on assignment from the Energy’s parent team, the Memphis Grizzlies—and Lucas, who played six minutes on one game for the Grizzlies in November before being waived, started shoving and the fight escalated quickly.
According to The Des Moines Register, broadcasters for the web stream of the game reported that the game was delayed while the Energy bench area was cleaned up and that Lucas was “bloodied up a little bit.”
Energy owner Jed Kaplan said any disciplinary action against Stokes and Lucas would be determined either by the NBA or the D-League.
The good news for Iowa is they hung on for a 124-120 win over the Rio Grande Vipers behind 30 points from Russ Smith, also on assignment from Memphis.
Lucas is averaging 18.1 points, 4.7 assists, 4.2 rebounds and 1.5 steals in 25 games for Iowa, shooting .432/.380/.773. The former Michigan State star played two seasons in Europe after going undrafted in 2011 and returned stateside last season, spending the year with the Energy.
Stokes was a second-round pick by the Grizzlies out of Tennessee and has played in 16 games for Memphis this season, averaging 2.1 points and 1.3 rebounds in 5.6 minutes a game and shooting .480/—/.529. With the Energy, Stokes is averaging 14.1 points and 8.6 rebounds in seven games, playing 27.4 minutes a game and shooting .625/—/.594.
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