Grant Williams spent the first four years of his NBA career as teammates with Jayson Tatum on the Boston Celtics. He’s moved around a few times since he left the team, and on Friday night, Williams and the Charlotte Hornets played host to his old squad. He did not, however, see the end of the game, as Williams was ejected after committing a Flagrant 2 foul on Tatum.
Late in the fourth quarter with the Celtics up, 114-105, Tatum reeled in a rebound and took off down the floor. While that happened, Williams came in and gave him a hip check near mid-court, which sent both of them to the ground.
Tatum got right up and walked away from it, but another one of Williams’ former teammates in Boston, Jaylen Brown, made it a point to get in his face and say something while he was being helped up. After it was reviewed, the officials determined that Williams “accelerates, makes significant impact to the dribbler — a non-basketball play, potential for injury,” and as a result, the foul was upgraded to a Flagrant 2.
It’s hard to tell exactly why Williams did this, but our hunch is after the game, he’s going to say it had something to do with the rebound Tatum grabbed right before this. You can see it at the very start of the above video, but presumably, he thought Tatum extended his arm and had LaMelo Ball hit the deck. Either that, or he just really wanted to hip check his old teammate.
The Celtics went on to win, 124-109.