There probably hasn’t been much excitement for former NBA player, Dwight Howard, since he left the NBA and started playing on a professional team in Taiwan. But that recently changed.
According to CBS News, Howard was playing in a game that was interrupted by a fight that turned into an outright brawl over the weekend. Although it appears that he was not directly involved in the fisticuffs, the former Los Angeles Laker was ejected along with a total of 11 other players from both teams.
On Sunday, the team that Howard plays on, the Taoyuan Leopards in Taiwan’s T1 League, was playing against the Taiwan Beer HeroBears. During the course of the game, while the Leopards’ Chen Hsiao-Jung was handling the basketball, the player elbowed his opponent, Chiang Yu-An of the HeroBears, which started the altercation.
After Yu-An reacted to the hit by attacking Hsiao-Jung, the other players on the basketball court went to intervene and in the process, a coach with the HeroBears went after Hsiao-Jung, setting off the brawl that involved multiple players from both teams.
The game was delayed for over 20 minutes. During this time, according to The New York Post, the referees reviewed video footage of the incident and tossed 12 players, five from the HeroBears, and the remaining seven playing for the Leopards.
The video below reveals that Howard was not directly involved in the fight, yet the officials ejected him along with players who were seen participating in the brawl. Howard’s stats for the game were a very respectable 28 points and 14 rebounds.
Although the former Orlando Magic player did not finish the game, his team won, 120-108. The victory upped the record of the Leopards to 4-11. That places them in last place in a league that has six teams.
Howard is also playing extremely well as he is averaging 24.4 points, 14.1 rebounds, and 6.2 assists per game.
The New York Post reported that this a brand new league as it just started in 2021.