In the dying seconds of the Jazz-Bulls game on Wednesday, things got heated between John Collins and Bulls assistant coach Chris Fleming and Collins has called Fleming out.
The Bulls were leading the game by one with 9.3 seconds left to play.
Chicago guard DeMar DeRozan was fouled by Collin Sexton and was heading to the line for two shots.
The foul Sexton committed didn’t sit well with Torrey Craig, who started yelling at Sexton from the bench.
Some pushing and shoving from both sides ensued and in a wild turn of events, things got physical between Collins and and Fleming.
Collins says he was only defending himself and that the coach’s behavior was “weird”.
“Collin and Craig got into a little, you know what I mean, just talking,” Collins told reporters postgame. “[I] ran over, I’m standing there, and the coach comes over and shoves me for no reason. Ya’ll can go watch the film, and I just protected myself. Literally just standing there and dude just puts a forearm in my chest and is pushing me.
“He need some more self-control. … I don’t know what to say about that. That was weird.”
After the scuffle, Referees issued a double technical foul on Collins and Craig and DeRozan made both his free throws, so the Bulls won the game 119-117.
Chicago’s head coach Billy Donovan addressed the heated incident after the game.
“Chris Fleming I think was trying to hold everybody off to kind of separate,” Donovan said. “And then from there, it just kind of escalated. … At that point, I stepped in, to kind of break it up a little bit.
“We’ve got to be better in those moments,” Donovan added. “Not only do we lose a point on a technical foul, we also iced our free throw shooter. I give DeMar a lot of credit for being mentally tough enough.”
DeRozan finished with a game-high 29 points, seven assists and six rebounds, while Collins led the Jazz with 25 points and 13 rebounds.
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