The leading storyline around the NBA the past few days has been the fight between the Detroit Pistons and Charlotte Hornets, highlighted by Isaiah Stewart coming off the bench to be involved in the brawl. While it took the league a few days to announce a punishment and suspension for what is perhaps the most notable enforcer in the game today, they finally announced a decision.
According to the league, Stewart has been officially suspended for seven games for coming off the Pistons’ bench to be involved in the fight. His teammate and first-time All-Star, Jalen Duren, has been suspended for two games for his initial involvement in the brawl.
Additionally, Hornets’ Miles Bridges and Moussa Diabate each received a four-game suspension by the league.
More than halfway into the season, the Pistons and Hornets’ fight has led to the most suspensions for any single game or on-court interaction this year, and it will likely stay that way barring another major brawl between the two teams.
NBA Announces Isaiah Stewart Suspension After Pistons-Hornets Fight
Immediately after the brawl, which took minutes to finally subside, there were predictions by many faces around the league on how long Stewart would be suspended for.
Bobby Marks of ESPN first predicted Stewart would be out ‘for a very long time,‘ as he has been a repeat offender who has consistently found himself in face-to-face confrontations with players across the league.
Later, Marks went on to mention that he thought a ten-game suspension was likely coming for Stewart.
“I think when you talk about the past, what has happened in the past, I think Isaiah Stewart [could get] 10 games,” Marks said. “I think it’s going to be one of the bigger on-court discipline cases.”
“Usually one punch gets you a game. But as you can see, it escalated into the crowd. There are a lot of different layers that the league’s going to look at.”
Shortly after the fight on Monday night, former NBA All-Star Demarcus Cousins predicted Stewart could miss 20-25 games, and while this was by no means the first time the enforcer has gotten into trouble, he believed Detroit’s big man has been misunderstood in how he’s been labeled across the NBA.
But now, the league has announced that Stewart will be suspended for seven games, which is lower than the predicted total by both Marks and Cousins. He has been a solid contributor for the Pistons over the past few years, so his absence will certainly be missed by the team currently first in the Eastern Conference standings.
Pistons Coach And Players On The Fight
While the official punishments and suspensions are now known, the fight itself has been a leading storyline for more than 36 hours after it occurred. Shortly after, both sides had vastly different stories on what went down on the court, but if one thing became clear, it’s that neither team was happy with how things went down, except for Stewart.
“You see it one way, I see it another way,” Pistons head coach JB Bickerstaff said after the brawl. “Obviously, and I repeat, we don’t want it to get to that point. But when you go back and watch the film, they ran multiple guys at JD (Jalen Duren). JD and Stew consider themselves to be brothers, and if you run two guys at one guy, you’ve already crossed the line. Human instinct tells him to protect his little brother.”
Duren, who received two games for his involvement but was also praised for not escalating the fight and jeopardizing his All-Star appearance, had a brief comment about what happened.
“Emotions were flaring,” Duren said. “At the end of the day, we would love to keep it basketball, but things happen. Everybody was just playing hard.”
He also added that the game was ‘overly competitive‘ and that the Hornets were trying to ‘get in our head‘ all season.
As for Stewart, while it’s uncertain what his thoughts are on the seven-game suspension, right after the fight, he appeared in good spirits, walking down the tunnel of the arena.
“You do not expect me to stay on the bench,” Stewart said after he was ejected. “[Expletive] that [expletive]. The [expletive] I was drafted to Detroit for.”
From the Hornets’ side, they also had major qualms with what the Pistons did to first engage in the brawl.
But for now, Stewart will be suspended for seven games, Duren two, Bridges four, and Diabate four, all for their involvement in the biggest fight of the NBA season.
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