First, let’s #pause on the title! Lol. I definitely thought Serge Ibaka should have been ejected for his groin hit on Blake Griffin. I know Blake is known to flop, but this didn’t look like a flop and any type of hit in that area is just unnecessary! Serge Ibaka was hit with a flagrant-one foul and a lot of people disagreed with that call.
Well Kobe and Dwight were both asked about the hit today, check out what they had to say about it and Dwight’s funny comment on how Kobe’s been playing!
*REACTIONS ABOVE IN GALLERY*
Tweets via Mark Medina
“I probably would have smacked him in the mouth,” Bryant said after practice Monday at the Lakers’ facility in El Segundo.
Griffin didn’t get the chance to do that. He understandably slumped to the ground.
“I would’ve dealt with the pain afterwards,” Bryant said.
It remains to be seen what the NBA will do.
Via BusinessInsider:
Ibaka explained it after the game, but not entirely (via Sam Amick of USA Today):
“He hit my hands away. He’s strong, so when he grabs you, your jersey or whatever, and you try to defend yourself and rebound. So maybe you can do some move, not to hurt, (but) just to get good position. But then something happens where you get hurt in the paint. It’s not anything where I want to try to hurt him. I’m not that kind of person. I just try to play hard, and that’s it.”
So Ibaka is saying that he intentionally retaliated, but unintentionally hit him in the groin.
Gif via BleacherReport
Video of Kobe’s Response via “>ESPN:
