Giannis Antetokounmpo was kicked out of a game following a powerful dunk on Wednesday night in the Bucks’ 120-118 win over the Pistons.
Antetokounmpo was given his second technical foul of the game in the second half after the monster dunk when he went hard to the rim and then mean-mugged Pistons forward Isaiah Stewart, resulting in the official assessing the foul.
The technical call set Antetokounmpo off as he went up to Stewart, quickly looking for an explanation of some sort over the call.
The Bucks superstar then attempted to sit courtside with the fans continuing before eventually leaving after roughly a minute.
Antetokounmpo finished with 15 points on 6-of-16 shooting, adding nine rebounds and five assists despite the truncated effort.
After the Bucks’ win, crew chief Rodney Mott explained why Antetokounmpo was assessed the second technical.
“After the dunk, Giannis turns to his opponent and taunts him and a taunting technical foul was called, an unsportsmanlike. And he was ejected from the game, per rule, because two unsportsmanlike technical fouls, you are ejected from the game,” Mott explained to a pool reporter, according to the Milwaukee Sentinal Journal.
The first technical that was assessed to Antetokounmpo came late in the second quarter away from the ball.
“On the play, Giannis drives to the basket and he thinks he gets fouled. Then he approaches the game official and uses profanity, which is an unsportsmanlike technical foul and was issued at that time,” Mott said about the first call.
“It’s an emotional game. He made a phenomenal play,” Bucks head coach Adrian Griffin said after the game, per the Associated Press. “It was exciting, emotional and I thought he moved on fairly quickly. So, I was surprised with the second technical, but that’s up to the league to decide.”
The ejection was the fifth time in Antetokounmpo’s career that he was tossed from a game, with the last occurrence taking place in the Orlando COVID bubble during an Aug. 11, 2020, matchup against Washington when he head-butted the Wizards’ Moe Wagner.
The Bucks will be back in action again Thursday when they take on the Pacers in Indiana.
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