- Warriors rookie Jordan Bell threw himself an alley-oop in the closing minutes of Monday night’s game with Golden State already holding a considerable lead.
- Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle walked off the court after the game went final before Warriors coach Steve Kerr could apologize.
- After the game, Kerr said his players were split in their reactions to the dunk, with a divide between older and younger players.
The Golden State Warriors were cruising to another victory on Monday night against the Dallas Mavericks when one of the NBA’s unwritten rules may have been broken by a rookie.
Steve Kerr opted to let his second team close out the final minutes, and while many players would be happy to work the clock down and simply leave with the win, rookie Jordan Bell had other ideas after he stole the ball and rushed towards the basket on a break.
Bell threw himself an alley-oop dunk that easily went down as the basketball highlight of the night.
Gotta throw hands. pic.twitter.com/gZd6zlZbP0
— Kofie (@KofieYeboah) October 24, 2017
The dunk got quite the reaction from the Warriors bench — Kevin Durant looked like he needed a moment to gather his thoughts before he could fully react to the situation.
It’s the type move you might see in dunk contests and pick up games, not in NBA regular season basketball against other professional athletes, especially with such a big lead, something that could be interpreted as disrespectful towards the opponent.
As the game ended, Anthony Slater of The Athletic reported that Warriors head coach Steve Kerr tried to apologize to Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle for the dunk, but Carlisle waved him off and left the court before any sort of exchange could take place.
Kerr told the media after the game that he was able to eventually track Carlisle down and told him that he would talk with Bell about the play. Kerr added that while the older players on the team knew that the dunk could be contentious, the younger Warriors players were simply excited about the highlight from a teammate.
Steve Kerr said the young guys just thought the Jordan Bell dunk was nice, but older guys knew Mavs/Carlisle would feel disrespected pic.twitter.com/5SXT1TfDck
— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) October 24, 2017
Draymond Green appears to have fallen in the latter camp, saying of the play “When you get on the basketball court … somebody’s evaluating you. So if you want to throw it off the backboard, feel free — he got an and-1, great play.”
Draymond Green on Jordan Bell’s dunk and blocking Dennis Smith “That sh*t ain’t happening, check my resume” — You’ll want to hear this ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/cQLOacSvxl
— NBCS Warriors News (@NBCSWarriors) October 24, 2017
The Warriors ended up winning the game by a final score of 133-103. Bell scored 6 points and added 4 rebounds and 2 assists in 10 minutes of action.
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