Memphis Grizzlies’ Jonas Valanciunas inflicted a dangerous foul on Sacramento Kings’ Chimezie Metu during their fixture on Valentine’s Day. The blatant foul has resulted in a broken wrist, that is expected to keep the Kings’ forward for a few weeks at least. Jusuf Nurkic called out the Grizzlies player for the reckless play.
After the severity of the injury suffered by Metu broke out, Nurkic commented on an Instagram video showing the foul. He wished for a speedy recovery and also stated that the Grizzlies center can do better than that.
“Come on Jonas, bro, we can do better than this. Metu, he’s a baller #fastrecovery,”, Nurkic wrote.
Watch the controversial incident right below:
Chimezie Metu had towered near the hoop for an imperious dunk and was dangling off the rim, right above Jonas Valanciunas. The Grizzlies player proceeded to prod the unbalanced player off the rim and heaved him hard to the ground, resulting in a broken wrist.
To make matters worse, the 28-year-old was only given a technical foul for his play. As a result, he avoided a flagrant foul to his name and was not ejected from the court for his exploits.
Despite suffering the foul, Metu played the entire duration of the game which ended in a 124-110 loss for Kings. However, he was unable to play the game against Brooklyn Nets and tests revealed he has indeed suffered a fracture to his right wrist.
Kings coach and Grizzlies’ Morant have contrasting opinions on Metu’s injury
Luke Walton was far from pleased with the officials’ verdict who deemed that there was no dangerous play involved in the incident.
“That was a dangerous play,” Walton said. “He hooked him by the leg and tried to throw him down, so I didn’t understand how that is not, in what today’s NBA is, is not even considered a flagrant foul. I don’t see how that’s a basketball play.” Kings coach Luke Walton stated
Last season’s rookie of the year, Ja Morant, came in defence of his teammate and claimed that it was Metu who was in the wrong.
‘“(Metu) went a little overboard,” Morant said. “He got the dunk; probably was excited. I felt like he wrapped his legs around (Valanciunas) and that’s a little disrespectful to a man. I don’t blame JV at all.”
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