The FIBA tournaments happening around the world are a nice reprieve from the depressing lack of news on the lockout front. One of those tournaments is the FIBA Americas competition that will decide a qualifier for the 2012 Olympics in London. Even though the already qualified USA team didn’t participate, there are still some NBA players taking part. These international tournaments are also a great opportunity to take out any of those lockout frustrations out on each other, which is exactly what happened in today’s Second Round game between Puerto Rico and Venezuela. Puerto Rico’s Renaldo Balkman of the Knicks attempted his best Zidane on Venezuela’s Greivis Vasquez of the Grizzlies. (Since when did the headbutt become a go-to fighting move by the way?) The rest of the fight isn’t too much with just some minor pushing and shoving, and a nice post-headbutt flop from Balkman.
As an announcing guru, I happened to take note of the especially laid back call of the fight like it was a three second violation. Too bad Johnny Most (may he rest in peace) can’t come back and commentate every basketbrawl. Maybe we can make that part of the next CBA. The video comes courtesy of the awesome Tim Burke…
