Lebron fouls Stewart, leading to Altercation Pt. Duex

[Capn'O]

Added a poll.

Let's reach a verdict.

Can you add a "yes, but it wasn't that bad" option

Yeah it was pretty clearly intentional, but also clearly not meant to be an actual punch to the face. LeBron wanted to hit him, but not like that.

Yup. A GTF off me sort of swipe gone awry.

[lambchop]

I wouldnt be surprised if stewart tries to end brons career the next time these two teams meet. It would be better for bron to go for load management in that game OR the lakers have to find a way to get Perkins out of retirement.

[J_T]

What about Lebron for his incidental foul?

Lebron deserves 3 games suspension for fighting and 2 games for the INTENTIONAL elbow (maybe you wanted to write intentional and it autocorrected wrong spelling to incidental?)

[Snakebites]

Following things are true:

1) Lebron hit him on purpose. There's clear intention there- he wasn't going for the ball, he wasn't simply trying to get his arm free. He definitely hit him.
2) Doubtful he meant to cause the harm that actually resulted- he clearly got Stewart a lot worse than he meant to.
3) Stewart lost his cool, and it stayed lost for a pretty crazy amount of time.

They're both looking at suspensions if there's any fairness here.

Side note: I realize it's not exactly news to anyone that objectivity is dead, but having seen both Detroit and Los Angeles play by play on this today, it's pretty absurd. If you listened to them cold without the video to go with it you'd assume they were describing two entirely different series of events.

[art_tatum]

I wouldnt be surprised if stewart tries to end brons career the next time these two teams meet. It would be better for bron to go for load management in that game OR the lakers have to find a way to get Perkins out of retirement.

That would be crazy if some young "nobody" player ends the career of the king, an icon, a top 5 player at least All time. That would be worth a lifetime ban probably.
Has a player ever suffered a career ending injury from a intentional act?

[breezypeezy]

Rudy T meet K.Washingtons elbow

[Jkam31]

Lebron should get 2-3 games. Stewart should get a large fine for delaying the game, maybe one game out.

I think it is funny there are posters who are basically saying you can punch people in the face as long as you check on them afterward.

Only lebron

[Jkam31]

Stewart low-key needs some therapy. Not excusing what Lebron did but dam Stewart just straight up mentally lost it with that behavior.

Lebrons huggers are embarrassing themselves

Oh ya Stewart lost his mind just let yourself catch a hammer fist I love lebron

[JoseRizal]

Just need to post the best angle of the event... This was a closed fist strike to the face. This was on purpose and deserves suspension.

Read on Twitter

There is no he was just swiping...

There is no accidental elbow...

It is a closed fist to the face.

^ THIS.

Sent from my SM-N950W using RealGM mobile app

Best angle of the incident. People claiming it was unintentional is acting blindly. Too bad for LeQueen, it connected and resulted to a bloody mess...

[TimRobbins]

Lebron should get 2-3 games. Stewart should get a large fine for delaying the game, maybe one game out.

I think it is funny there are posters who are basically saying you can punch people in the face as long as you check on them afterward.

Lebron should get at least a 5 game suspension.

[Commodor]

I’m not a Lebron fan but I land on the “not THAT malicious” side. Definitely trying to check Stewart but I doubt he was trying to draw blood.

Stewart was fine until that second charge and knocked down the coach/ref or whoever. Could have been a league darling if not for that, oh well.

But as an anti-Lebron, add it to the list of semi-over-the-line moves he’s done which he probably knows very well will set off the other player and he knows damn well he’ll get away with.

Cough*game 4 step over Draymond*cough.

Lebron will get maybe a 1-2 game suspension. Stewart will get called unhinged and the same punishment if not more. Lebron walks awake unscathed and Stewart gets a reputation because Lebron decided he didn’t like someone trying hard against him.

[SlovenianDragon]

Lebron should get 2-3 games. Stewart should get a large fine for delaying the game, maybe one game out.

I think it is funny there are posters who are basically saying you can punch people in the face as long as you check on them afterward.

Lebron should get at least a 5 game suspension.

I agree I think the poll question should be how many games he should be suspended. 3-5 IMO but i lean towards 5 because that was malicious.

[Zvaart]

That was intentional as ****.

[SeniorWalker]

Couple of things:

1) there is no doubt whatsoever that LeBron intentionally hit him, with a closed fist. Find your reasons, justify it, it doesn't matter. He did it and its a very reckless thing to do. Fwiw I don't think LeBron meant to seriously hurt him but that isn't exactly relevant either.

2) Stewart did not overreact. If you notice, he did not initially chase LeBron but instead was briefly reeling after being popped by a league vet. LeBron clearly said something to him when they were face to face that didn't sit well with him, and when the blood started flowing that set him off. Steve Smith even said this on air. If LeBron had apologized in that instance I very, very highly doubt Stewart goes after him.

Stewart will probably get a suspension but I could see a scenario where he doesn't either given all the details. LeBron will get at least a game. Anything more than a few would shock me. If he doesn't get any games, the league will look bad.

[Baski]

Wow, people here are ridiculous. This kind of stuff makes certain people come out in droves to create their own narratives in order to further fuel their own hatred. LeBron very clearly was annoyed with being grabbed and tried to hit Stewart's arm off him hard (which he shouldn't have done) but accidentally hit him the face. You actually think he was deliberately trying to punch Stewart in the face? When have you ever seen LeBron legitimately try to get into a fight? Way too image-focused and definitely wouldn't want to piss off someone that big, which something like that would be guaranteed to do.

Even without the intent to hit him in the face, the result happened, and so LeBron should be suspended a game. But what Stewart did is clearly worse. Absolutely unhinged rage that caused him to have to be restrained like 10 different times, and then he ran into the tunnel to try to beat the hell out of LeBron on the other end, all the while putting teammates and staff members at risk in his efforts. That kind of hotheadedness is absolutely insane and makes him a real on-court danger. I haven't seen a dude lose his cool that much since Malice at the Palace. If his teammates (way to go Cade) staff members didn't do the job they did, Stewart legitimately might have done something to cost himself his career.

It's sad. You can tell a lot about someone from the posts they and1. A bunch of posters in this thread are outing themselves as pure haters.

[agentofatlas]

Both should get a one game suspension.That's it.

[Lalouie]

lebron clearly swung.

you don't swing unless you know there's some object at the end of that swing. so the question is was lebron trying to hit stewart or clear him out, like a swing/push

more probably the second because i cannot imagine lebron actually trying to HIT someone, but that is beside the point. either way that's a foul and it's more how stewart felt about it. and when stewart starting going after lebron what did lebron say to him?

[Hoop Heavy]

He is looking directly at him as his fist makes contact. It you funny you are insulting others, when the only people that cannot see the truth are Lebron stans like you.

Wow. What a clown take. “LeBron stan” for having a rationale take?

I dont really care about ur internal arguments but just saw this, "The fact that you think that's the more reasonable possibility than trying to hit the hand away that was pushing him is hilarious."

When you want to push some1 away or push an arm away you use an open hand not a closed fist. Its just naturally what we do its whats easier.

His fist was closed. He did wind up. He did look at him. He did hit him in the face. He did draw blood

You do not push with a closed fist. That is meant to do harm.

Yeah, It is clearly excessive and hostile. Whether he wanted to make contact with the head or not. When you intentionally strike someone up high like that ... if you make contact with the head ... whether on purpose or negligently ... you get a suspension.

Still, the refs missed several more fouls there ... I've got Cade Cunningham guilty of a moving screen trying to keep Stewart away from Lebron. He followed that up with two takes and then some holding and jersey grabbing. Good job rookie, you are the main reason the **** didn't get even worse.

[IAMZOOTED2]

Hoemboy needs to spare us all the histrionics. Yes, 'bron clocked him. No, it wasn't intentional. No more rubbernecking... nothing to see here.

[lambchop]

Couple of things:

1) there is no doubt whatsoever that LeBron intentionally hit him, with a closed fist. Find your reasons, justify it, it doesn't matter. He did it and its a very reckless thing to do. Fwiw I don't think LeBron meant to seriously hurt him but that isn't exactly relevant either.

2) Stewart did not overreact. If you notice, he did not initially chase LeBron but instead was briefly reeling after being popped by a league vet. LeBron clearly said something to him when they were face to face that didn't sit well with him, and when the blood started flowing that set him off. Steve Smith even said this on air. If LeBron had apologized in that instance I very, very highly doubt Stewart goes after him.

Stewart will probably get a suspension but I could see a scenario where he doesn't either given all the details. LeBron will get at least a game. Anything more than a few would shock me. If he doesn't get any games, the league will look bad.

I wouldn't be that sure about your 2nd point. Seems to me that Stewart just needed a while to realize what had happened. If LBJ truly said something upsetting to him, the other pistons players that were standing right there would probably have at least briefly directed their attention to lebron like "Dude, for real!?" before stopping Stewart. But the whole time they are just focused on Stewart.

Plus, for someone to get that upset charging multiple times, risking injury refs and coaches (I name refs and coaches cause they're physically weak) lebron would probably have had to say something along the lines of "I'm happy your mom is in hospital right now dying of covid.", especially, if you choose to say that he didn't overreact.

That said, it definitely was intentional .