Brooklyn Nets rookie Egor Demin said he didn’t mean to start a fight against Dillon Brooks and the rest of the Phoenix Suns during their 106-102 road defeat on Tuesday evening.
With the Phoenix Suns up 104-102 with 1:14 left, Ziaire Williams and Brooks got tangled up while battling for a loose ball. Brooks kept pulling the ball after the jump ball had been called, and Demin pushed Brooks to the ground, and both benches cleared.
“I just had to get him off Ziaire,” Demin explained via ClutchPoints’ Erik Slater. “It was a dead ball, and the whistle was blown already. I didn’t have any intentions to hurt anybody or to even start a fight.
“I got out of there right away because I’m not trying to fight nobody. That’s not what I’m basically doing. But I gotta make sure that our guys are protected. We should just go and fight for each other. That’s all I wanted to do. Just take him off my teammate,” he added.
Brooklyn Nets News: Jordi Fernandez applauds Egor Demin for standing up for his teammate
Jordi Fernandez addressed their late-game altercation with the Phoenix Suns last night, and the Brooklyn Nets head coach liked the fact that his players were looking out for each other.
“Those are just guys protecting each other and fighting for each other,” Fernandez stated. “I think they did a great job. You’re not gonna let any of your teammates get hit or pushed or anything. Obviously, there’s boundaries, and we don’t want anyone to get hurt, but you saw a few dirty plays. They called it or they didn’t call it. At the end of the day, I think it got out of hand because of that. But I like my guys sticking up for each other.”
“(Ziaire) is hurt. We don’t know exactly what it is right now. It was a member of the other team running in to break up the right, and he ran into him and hurt him. Obviously, it was not intentional, but you gotta be careful with those things. So we’ll see what happens. We’ll see how long it is. Hopefully, it’s not a long time,” he added.
