Sacramento Kings big man Chimezie Metu will miss several weeks with broken wrist, according to the Sacramento Bee’s Jason Anderson. Metu was injured by Jonas Valanciunas’ cheap shot.
On the play in question, Metu threw down a big dunk on Jonas and then hung on the rim to wait for Valanciunas to move so there would be a clear landing spot. Instead, the Grizzlies big man felt Metu was trying to show him up, so Jonas hooked Metu’s leg and spun, throwing him to the floor.
Chimezie Metu went for a ride after this dunk ???? pic.twitter.com/xSjy9AFcYp
— Kings on NBCS (@NBCSKings) February 15, 2021
After the play NBA officials assessed a technical foul on Valanciunas, but decided that pulling a player from the rim and throwing him to the ground is not a flagrant foul. In a league full of maddeningly inconsistent rules, that decision still stood out as baffling.
We’re still waiting on an official injury update from the Kings, as well as a recovery timeline.
Metu has appeared in 11 games this season, and is averaging 3.4 points, 2.1 rebounds, and 0.5 blocks in 6.5 minutes per game.
The league should suspend Valanciunas and the refs that didn’t call that a flagrant 2
Honestly, that was one of the dirtiest plays I’ve ever seen, and the refs didn’t even call it a flagrant 1, when it was clearly a 2.
He grabbed Metu’s leg, and them twisted him around so that Metu would lose his grip on the rim. Then he throws him to the floor. That ought to be a six-figure fine and a suspension, no doubt in my mind.
I will forever hate Valanciunas now because of this play. He deserved to get punched in the mouth right after.
And we have a bunch of guys who did nothing…
I’m sure that having a bunch of our guys tossed and suspended would have been the smart play here.
What would we do without CoJo or Belly for a few games??
Since you ask, we would have lost to Orlando by thirty instead of eleven, and to Brooklyn by thirty-five instead of eleven.
I’m all-in for the tank, but I don’t want to see our guys get absolutely annihilated because they’re shorthanded.
JV will get his. Let Whiteside absolutely smash him when he goes to the rim.
Cojo and Belly usually contribute to the other team’s leads, not cut into them
Where is Boogie when you need him https://mtc.cdn.vine.co/r/videos/774BFCE0F11121937592028729344_2c3e13685ac.5.1.18010432035494969729.mp4?versionId=vfzhPoZnjdwxGLtv9JwKkwQHc0GATC_M
“……Mr. Valanciunas-“
said none of his teammates…
Ha, I forgot about that GIF.
Can you imagine if DMC ever pulled what Valanciunas did? He would’ve been ejected immediately
The league would have Ron-Ronned him.
DMC would have been ejected before he even committed the act!
Any question this team is soft? Not one guy on the floor confronts Valanciunas. Not a shove, not a word, nothing. Half his size Pat Bev would’ve torn his head off, and Balmer would’ve paid his fine. Embarrassing.
It was Joseph, Hield, GR3 and Bjelica out there with Metu. Not exactly the Bad Boys lineup there.
We have something that resembles a Bad Boys lineup? Maybe Woodard in the G-League someday. Sadly, I haven’t seen anything else. Hence the (119.3 p/a) worst defense in the league.
This is why I’ve often thought the Kings need that kind of “tough guy” on the roster like a Steven Adams or James Johnson. No one is going to give them shit or even the teammate standing next to them.
No time like the present to throw out my James Johnson trade idea:
Barnes for Johnson and Josh Green
Kings get an expiring Johnson for some toughness and a rookie in Josh Green. Mavs get a third banana for Luka and Zinger that they need to make a push into the playoffs.
James Johnson wore a Sonics hat into the locker room the day it was announced they were about to be sold to Hansen and I think G-Man and him got in to a heated argument. I think I heard Carmichael Dave say this story on air before.
I think that was Spencer Fucking Hawes.
Spencer Hawes wore a tie of the space needle or something when they moved, Spencer wasn’t on the team, when the kings were potentially gonna be sold and moved to Seattle
You are right. My timeline is off. I just remember Hawes doing some kind of Sonics thing, but I don’t recall the James Johnson hat story.
Can confirm. James Johnson is an asshole and I never want him near this team again.
The funny thing is Adams is pretty famous for NOT getting caught up in that kind of crap. He would be much more likely to help Metu up and break up a scuffle than to get in JV’s face. He plays physically, but he’s level-headed and doesn’t really go in for much of the after-the-whistle stuff.
VA is an A-hole.
After breaking Metu’s wrist, he follows it up with a purposeful head scissors on CoJo. What an immature twat.
It’s still amazing they don’t punish him at all for that obvious teabag on Cojo in retaliation after throwing metu down. Also, I realized later that Holmes didn’t play the next night because JV landed on his leg! This mfer haha
Ja Morant is a douche as well.
Kings angry over dirty play’ by Valanciunas, NBA ruling | The Sacramento Bee (sacbee.com)
So when does Memphis come back to Sac? Asking for a friend.
Does it matter? Not one bad a$$ on the team. There won’t be any retribution.
We’re pre-ordering a special burger for him. That’s why we need to know ahead of time.
What a joke. Valanciunas should be suspended and how that wasn’t an obvious flagrant foul is beyond me. They give out flagrants for stupid stuff all the time and in this case somebody was legitimately hurt and nothing.
This is where I’m at. Refs call a lot of ticky-tac flagrants for things like inadvertent head contact and this gets a technical.
Yeah it’s not “maddeningly inconsistent rules,” it’s maddeningly inconsistent calls.
How many games is JV suspended if he does that to LeBron?
Probably the death penalty.
He would have been ejected from the NBA if this was against any of the handpicked poster-bois (LBJ, KD, Curry, Embiid, Harden). It was the most dangerous play I have ever witnessed in my lifetime. It was purposeful and malicious.
He’s a cowardly piece of shit who forever will have the stank of Metu’s nuts on his upper lip. “Valanciunas” is Lithuanian for punk-ass bitch.
UGH…four weeks.
Can the league review this play again and try to give some punishment to Valanciunas ?
(just like what they did for those flop play)
Just Fxxk D. Brooks, Valanciunas, G. Allen, and the whole Grizzles team, and of course the referees…..
Just cannot believe no immediate ejection for Valanciunas for this dangerous play…
and now we are without Metu again………..
yeah, and i’m more concerned for Metu because he’s just trying to stay in the league
Fuck Jonas Valanciunas
¬ My name is
JonasJackass… ¬Hey, Jonas, you Skeezer….the workers are going home.
Kings are a team of a bunch of soft ass pansies for letting that shit go unchecked
I miss PaPaG or Ron Artest !!!
Our 2016 roster definitely had some guys that would have reacted: Boogie, Matt Barnes, Georgios, maybe even Afflalo and Lawson.
You are absolutely right…..
We definitely need some Afflalo on the roster
Afflalo is not going to backing down anyone, even BJelly
32-50. 12th in the West.
lol I love these tough guy responses.
I’m curious, if Bjelica had put JV in a headlock would the other 14 players on the roster still be considered a bunch of soft ass pansies? Is there some sort of tough guy quorum that needs to be reached for a roster to be considered hard ass?
are you wearing a onesie and drinking your chai latte while typing?
See, here’s the thing. Even if he were it wouldn’t say anything about his actual “toughness.” I would just mean he doesn’t care about whether his clothing or drink choices adhere to other people’s ideas of performative “toughness.”
I’m wearing a cowl-neck sweater and drinking a half-sweet salted caramel Americano while typing. TF does that have to do with anything?
…oh wait, it’s because my drink choice is supposed to signify both how old and how manly I am, isn’t it? I see. Very cool and funny.
Valanciunas, after his basketball career is over, opens a dojo in the Valley.
We have invisible Pizza Guys ..
What’s the problem? Our crack play by play man didn’t think he saw anything malicious – JV was just executing a discard. Great analysis.
If you watch the YouTube vids of the play, all the comments are pro Valanciunas for doing what he did. Everybody says Metu was the dick and deserved to be thrown down.
Not defending Vala. But, Metu was clearly hanging on the rim. Doing a little bit of showboating. Probably the reason Vala didn’t get kicked out of the game
most people are missing the issue, in my opinion. It’s not about whether or not Metu intentionally hung on the rim, but rather, did the punishment for JV’s actions match the act itself. The NBA presents itself as having clear guidelines to delineate proper vs improper acts within the game, and yet, a clearly intentional retaliation by JV that had no regard for another player’s safety has been brushed off thus far. To justify JV’s retaliation based on an assumption of Metu’s intent is to morally attribute causality to that sequence of events, specifically the resulting response by JV.
Pardon the attempt to sound smart, but, the question to me is not, did Metu teabag JV, but did JV only deserve a technical foul for his reaction?
Hanging on the rim gets you a technical, if you’ve got a place to land. Where was Metu supposed to land?
Sorry. The player needs somewhere to land and if you don’t get out of the way I’m sticking my dick in your ear. That’s on you. Don’t get pissed when it bottoms out on your pea brain.
Youtube commenters are hardly known for their intelligence, but it’s pretty toxic how many people are defending JV. Most of them (including Morant) are arguing that Metu deserved it for showboating, but if you really want to be tough, you don’t retaliate by attacking a defenseless player. Get in the guy’s face or something instead, rather than potentially (and in this case, actually) injuring someone seriously. JV is a total coward for that move. I definitely wish we had Boogie in that moment
I’m not a fan of player retaliation, but if the refs don’t take care of business someone has to. JV better be spending a ton of time on his a$$ next time they play.
Eh, I’d rather they just try to win. It has always been the only retaliation that actually means anything in sports. Everything else is just childish posturing.
Don’t want to upset the tank.
OT, but semi-related, I thought this article in the ringer about former first round picks fighting to get back into the NBA was interesting. Nik Stauskas is one of the former FRPs interviewed for the article.
That was a great read. Seeing all those name of players you know were drafted high and still haven’t been able to stick should be a wakeup call for a guy like Bagley.
I think the rule ought to be if you injure a player on a flagrant 1 or 2, or a technical that you are automatically suspended without pay for the same amount of time the other player is out due to that injury. That would end it immediately.
Imagine if this happened on a DC team…
Badge Legend