Australia Played the Philippines in an International Basketball Game This Week… It Didn’t Finish the Way They Expected…
If you watch team sports then surely you’ve seen this happen at some point. One man gets taken out unfairly by a member of the opposition. Boom. The next thing you know half the squad is on the pitch/field/ice/court and pushing and shoving. Some people are like: “Oh it’s terrible for the sport. So unsavory.” Oh shut up, it’s awesome.
We all love a little bit of carnage. That’s why people go to ice hockey. Do they think people like sitting in the cold to watch grown men hit a puck around? No way. It’s all about the violence.
A round of applause then for Australia and The Philippines, who brought the playground pushing and shoving to a new level. Their international basketball match devolved into absolute chaos. Thank you, gentlemen, for the entertainment you’ve given us.
Watch the moment a HUGE basketball fight broke out between Philippines and Australia: pic.twitter.com/FWTpafkcfE
— ESPN UK (@ESPNUK) July 2, 2018
Brawl
In the footage above you can see how it starts. A Filipino player threw a forearm at an Australian and he went down. It definitely looked worse than it was, but cue mayhem, in one of the most violent scraps we’ve ever seen. Both teams came rushing in and the pushing and shoving started.
It escalated though. Australia’s Thon Maker decided he was going to seize inspiration from his homeland’s most beloved animal, the kangaroo. He started doing flying knees and kicks – ok they weren’t very good – but the intention was there.
This brawl went on for a good few minutes. There were sly elbows, blatant punches, kicks, tackles. Bizarrely the Filipino players even had time to take a few selfies. Ok… But possibly the best part was when one of the Australians had a chair lumped at him, WWE style. That looked like it hurt. The security guards did nothing, except this lad below who landed a lovely punch on an Ozzie player.
— Chris Anusich (@canusich) July 2, 2018
Pure Carnage
What is it about our basic primal instincts that makes us love this sort of ridiculous behavior? Even MMA fighters get involved in these sort of scenes. We’ve seen Nate Diaz get stung for his part in two public brawls over the last couple of months. We’re talking about a guy who is guaranteed to make literally a couple of million dollars if he makes weight and steps into an octagon. Nope, public brawl.
Conor McGregor, of course, took it to another level when he launched a full-scale tactical assault on Brooklyn’s Barclay Center. A man who walked away with $100 million from his last fight. Although if this works in his favor then it’s fair to say that it could be the best move the ‘Notorious’ ever made.
— Ginebra For Life. (@librong_james) July 2, 2018
Chaos
Another infamous brawl involved Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier. It was different because there were only two guys involved. However, because of their size and capacity for violence, it still caused mass destruction and had half the press conference involved.
The last word has to go to the Diaz brothers though. Strikeforce: Nashville saw Nick Diaz throw the first punch to ignite a brawl between the Gracie Jiu-Jitsu camp and Jason Millar’s team. It’s regarded as absolutely shameful. But we love it. Let’s not lie.
