Bucks guard Grayson Allen served a one-game suspension for a flagrant foul that caused Bulls guard Alex Caruso‘s broken wrist in January.
Caruso remains sidelined.
Allen visited Chicago on Friday.
In the fourth quarter, Bulls forward Derrick Jones Jr. flagrantly fouled Allen with an elbow to the head.
Jones, via K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago:
“Get a stop. That’s all that goes through my head,” Jones Jr. said when asked if the foul carried special intent. “I’m not a dirty player. I talked to every ref that was there today. I don’t think it was a flagrant. They said I hit him in his head. I didn’t feel it. I just felt him bump my hip and fall. That’s all I felt.
“Y’all trying to make it something it ain’t. I ain’t even tripping off that. It’s basketball. I want to get a stop as much as they want to get a stop on the other end. What happened in Milwaukee, we didn’t like it. It’s obvious that we didn’t like it. Nobody likes that.
“But I’m not going to go out there and just try to take a man out. That’s not who I am. If I get a foul while in the process of trying to get a stop, then so be it. But I ain’t gonna try to blatantly take that man out. He got a family to take care of. Why would I do that?”
Very circumstantial evidence bolstering Jones’ explanation: The game was tied in the fourth quarter when he decked Allen – far from an ideal time to retaliate. Allen made both free throws, helping Milwaukee pull out a 118-112 victory.
Of course, the timing is far from dispositive. Plenty of people won’t buy Jones’ denial.
Even more people don’t want to buy Jones’ denial.
Caruso is loathed. Old-school retribution is viewed nostalgically. Jones could be celebrated as an enforcer, a good teammate to Caruso.
But, whatever his intent, Jones doesn’t want that narrative attached to him.
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Bulls’ Derrick Jones Jr. denies dirty intent behind flagrantly fouling Bucks guard Grayson Allen originally appeared on NBCSports.com