Matthew Dellavedova is going to find himself in some hot water after the NBA gets to reviewing some film. During a transition play, in what appeared to be Delly attempting to "defend" another man, the reserve Milwaukee Bucks guard nearly injured Washington Wizards talent Bradley Beal.
Before consuming the video, you can save yourselves the idea that he was just trying to prevent Beal from attacking the basket with a hard-foul.
If Dellavedova was merely trying to prevent an easy bucket, he could have reached for the ball. Instead, he chose to go the route of fully embracing his grit, grind, and moxie personality, nearly killing a man in the process.
After the game, several members of the Wizards reacted to Delly's antics, per the Washington Post.
"C'mon, man. He could've got a concussion," John Wall said. "He's going full speed and you snatch him back. He could've hit his head on the floor and got a concussion."
As for the player who should be most upset, he wasn't very please.
"There's no place in the game for that," Beal said. "I don't care. There's a difference between making a play on the ball and wrapping your arms around somebody's neck."
Delly tried to rationalize his part in this debacle, and somehow deflected blame to gravity... or something.
"Wall threw the ball up to Beal and I tried to run him off the three," Dellavedova explained. "He decides to drive it, so I tried to hold him up and he slipped because he went down. I was just trying to hold him to prevent him from getting the and-one, and then he just went to the ground."
This would certainly still be frowned upon, but it mat not have been as big of a deal if Dellavedova hadn't had a litany of prior run-ins with players.
During his time with the Cleveland Cavaliers, Delly became notorious for his dirty plays, dragging Draymond Green to the ground and going at Al Horford's ankles before being caught with an elbow.
