It's time for everyone's favorite game. What was Delonte West thinking?
I can't say I've ever seen a player give another a wet willy, though I'm not so sure this wasn't just a willy with not wet. Why though? Why did West very precisely stick his finger in Gordon Hayward's ear? Here's what he told the Salt Lake Tribune:
"I went over the line," West said. "I saw some lint in his hair, and I wanted to get it out for him. Seriously, we were like two warriors out there. But I forgot the NBA is a gentlemen’s game. They want us to battle and scrap, but they want us to do it nicely."OK, I see your point, but at what point does sticking your finger in someone's ear qualify as "battling and scrapping?" Shouldn't you have set a hard screen on him or fouled him hard? Or at least just walked over and bumped him? What's next, flicking someone's chin? "Cracking an egg" on their head? Giving them a dead leg?
It appears what annoyed West was a minor flop by Hayward, which obviously frustrated West. So he walked over and did what anyone would do. He stuck his finger in Hayward's ear.
The Jazz announcers were pretty upset about West's move and while it certainly was fairly classless, I don't know about an ejection. We'll see if the league office has something to say about it though.
