The only thing missing in the in-flight fight between the NBA’s Memphis Grizzlies O.J. Mayo and Tony Allen was Kevin Hart and Snoop Dogg.
Apparently, after a card game that descended into a verbal fracas some 30,000 feet up, Grizzlies teammates O.J. Mayo and Tony Allen had to be restrained during a physical encounter on the team’s charter flight Monday, league sources told Yahoo! Sports.
Perhaps they should ban card games on NBA flights.
This is similar to last year’s scandalous card game involving former Washington Wizards teammates Gilbert Arenas and Javaris Crittenton that prompted Arenas to bring guns into the locker room. He was subsequently suspended for the remainder of the season and traded to the Orlando Magic.
After Allen demanded that Mayo make good on the money he owed from a card game, sources said Mayo berated and acted aggressively toward Allen. Angered but still in control of his emotions, Allen walked away from Mayo to go the restroom and returned. But when he returned, Mayo continued to light into him. Eventually, Mayo inched close to Allen, and that’s when Allen decided it was time to box and connected with a punch.
“Tony warned [Mayo] to watch his mouth, and [Mayo] wouldn’t do it and just kept going off on him,” a source with knowledge of the incident told Yahoo! Sports.
Several players eventually separated the teammates, sources said. Mayo and Allen were brought in to meet with Grizzlies coach Lionel Hollins on Monday, Jan. 3 and sources said the organization believed Mayo played the bigger part in escalating the encounter. –terry shropshire
