It was a wild night in Milwaukee last night and the mayhem didn’t stop after the final whistle between the Bucks and Pacers.
On the court, it was the Milwaukee Bucks who emerged victorious, 140-126, thanks to Giannis Antetokounmpo’s career-high and franchise record 64-point performance.
Afterwards, Giannis wanted the game ball to give to his mother. However, the Pacers also wanted a game ball to give to rookie Oscar Tshiebwe, who scored his first ever NBA regular season point.
Giannis wasn’t having any of that, resulting in quite the scene that eventually spilled over into the locker room area.
Afterwards, Rob Perez of @WorldWideWob broke down the entire saga. Some interesting notes he points out is that the Bucks’ security member did actually retrieve the game ball from the official immediately after the final whistle, and as Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle points out, there are actually TWO game balls for every game. So we’re still unsure if this was a mix-up and Tshiebwe simply got the OTHER game ball, or if it was Giannis who was given the OTHER game ball after the mix up.
Giannis did receive a game ball eventually, but as you’ll see in his post-game press conference in the investigative video below, he felt as though his game ball was the wrong one (ie. the one that wasn’t actually used during the game).
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If you have 12 minutes, here’s an entire breakdown of the wild events from the Fiserv Forum last night.
All of this drama over a game ball…
And the best part about all of this is that these two teams will play again on New Years Day…and then once more just two days later.
It should be a fun one! Hopefully the NBA brings enough game balls for everyone!
