CHARLOTTE — Channel 9 is waiting to learn if the Charlotte Hornets players involved in a brawl on the court will get suspended, or slapped with a fine.
Head Coach Charles Lee told us the NBA’s decision is out of their hands, so the mentality here is next man up.
In the meantime, he told Channel 9 he got his team together Tuesday to rehash what happened, and discuss what they can learn from this.
A matchup between the Charlotte Hornets and Detroit Pistons exploded into chaos Monday night.
Punches were thrown and four players were ejected. By the end, Coach Lee was too.
“First of all, I want to say sorry to the fans and the organization,” said Hornets’ Moussa Diabaté. “Obviously this is not a reflection of who I am and it definitely shouldn’t be part of our sport.”
Diabaté says the turning point of the game was when he fouled Pistons star Jalen Duren. The two came head to head.
“It took a different route when he put his hands in my face,” Diabaté said. “Obviously it’s unfortunate, but at that point I lost control of my emotions.”
Hornets veteran Miles Bridges also got involved. He says, in Diabaté’s defense.
“It was a lot of things built up, but you see Jalen push Moussa in his face,” Bridge said. “That’s the most disrespectful thing you can do and after that, things just went left.”
Both Bridges and Diabaté apologized for their role, but stood firm on having their teammate’s back.
“For me, I should’ve just went to Moussa and made sure he was good, but like you said, it’s a learning experience,” said Bridges.
“Now you’ve gotta know I can go to that competitive level from a physical standpoint, but also there’s a mental side of the game that you can’t tip over and do things that are going to take away from your team’s ability to win the game,” said Lee.
“The Hornets have been through a lot, man. At the end of the day, people tend to forget we had a lot of injuries last year, a lot of changes. The whole organization changing,” Diabaté said. “It just shows that we’re changing things around here.”
The Hornets are back at Spectrum Center Wednesday night when they host the Atlanta Hawks. That’ll be their last game before a week off for the All-Star break.
VIDEO: Brawl erupts during Hornets-Pistons game as win streak ends
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