Austin Rivers, Mo Bamba at the center of the Magic Timberwolves brawl
Minnesota Timberwolves guard Austin Rivers and Orlando Magic center Mo Bamba were at the center of a brawl on Friday that resulted in the ejection of five players.
The incident happened at 1:32 in the third quarter when the Magic were up 83-73. Rivers appeared to approach the Magic bench to exchange words, and Bamba, who wasn’t checked into the game and was wearing a warm-up shirt over his uniform, took offense.
Rivers and Bamba traded punches as the fight spilled from the sidelines onto the court. The Magic’s Jalen Suggs then brought Rivers down. Rivers and Bamba continued to wrestle on the floor while staff and teammates tried to separate the two.
What led to the altercation is unclear. In the game leading up to the fight, Rivers missed a 3-point corner shot from the Magic Bank and words appeared to be exchanged.
“The game is under review because of a hostile dispute,” the referees immediately announced.
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Rivers, Jaden McDaniels and Taurean Prince were ejected from the Timberwolves. Bamba and Suggs were ejected on the Magic side.
After being ejected, Bamba posted a viral “(expletive) around, find out” meme on his Instagram Story while the game went on without him.
The Magic won the game 127-120.
MORE: Grizzles’ Dillon Brooks was suspended, Cavaliers’ Donovan Mitchell was fined after the fight
After the game, Rivers responded with an Instagram story of his own on Bamba.
Rivers said Bamba would have been choked if it hadn’t been “1 on 5” and that Orlando is still “my city.”
“We only know (you) from an old rap song,” Rivers added.
This is the second NBA fight to happen in as many nights. On Thursday, Cav’s Donovan Mitchell and Grizzlies’ Dillon Brooks were both knocked out of the tournament after a spat. Brooks was suspended for one game without pay for hitting Mitchell in the groin, and Mitchell was fined $20,000 for escalating the shoving and shoving incident.
