“Spit Gate” on a Saturday night in the Staples Center!
At the time, the Los Angeles Lakers were the center of the NBA universe with the excitement of LeBron James leading the team out on primetime the first weekend of the NBA season.
ESPN hyped the game up all week-long as the first NBA on ABC game of the season. The Lakers eventually lost the game to the Houston Rockets 124-115.
The Lakers dropped to 0-2 for the season and no one really remembers because of the incident that happened between James Harden, Brandon Ingram, Chris Paul and Rajon Rondo.
In case you need a small reminder, here’s what happened.
Replay Review (Game Crew): player altercation in Q4 of #HOUatLAL. Ruling: Fighting technical foul ejections assessed to Rondo and Paul, two technical fouls and ejection assessed to Ingram. pic.twitter.com/EKSguqcDnk
— NBA Official (@NBAOfficial) October 21, 2018
With just over four minutes left in the game, you see James Harden coming down on the break. Running back on defense is Lonzo Ball and Brandon Ingram. Harden lowers his shoulder into Ingram and bulls him out-of-the-way and hits the layup.
After the referees go back and forth with Chris Paul, Carmelo Anthony and Harden arguing that the shot should have counted. Ingram shoves Harden in the back.
Then Ingram gets in the referee’s face which prompts Lance Stephenson to come in and grab Ingram. While all of that is going on Rondo and Chris Paul get in each other’s face and the fight started.
https://twitter.com/BleacherReport/status/1053877852821581824?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1053877852821581824&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Flakeshowlife.com%2F2018%2F10%2F21%2Flos-angeles-lakers-people-missing-point-fight%2F
What we do know is that Chris Paul putting his finger in Rondo’s face DEFINITELY lead to Rondo swinging. Reports of Rondo spitting Paul’s face led to the finger.
There have been reports that Carmelo Anthony may have spit on Chris Paul talking trying to break things up. Reports leaked that things went past the floor into the crowd.
Sources on @TheAthleticNBA @WatchStadium: Along with Chris Paul/Rajon Rondo altercation in Lakers-Rockets, one of Rondo’s family members confronted Paul’s wife, Jada. NBA investigating tonight’s on-court altercations ahead of Rockets/Clippers on Sunday.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) October 21, 2018
This fight led to a heated debate that went in so many directions on social media and even on Lake Show Life. There was many a discussion in the comments section of the articles that I wrote based on if Brandon Ingram was right or wrong for pushing Harden. The biggest debate was about was Rajon Rondo justified in throwing the punch. At the time, no one knew the specifics of what really happened. There was only speculation.
After the suspensions and the facts were collected, the real story happened.