Dejounte Murray and the Atlanta Hawks were involved in a minor altercation against the Houston Rockets on Friday evening.
The back-and-forth was mostly involved around Murray and Houston rookie forward Jabari Smith Jr. Murray hit a 3-pointer against Smith, and Smith said Murray tapped him on the head after the shot.
The teams ended up getting in each other’s faces for a bit before both sides had to get separated by the officials. After some brief pushing and shoving, which involved Trae Young, cooler heads prevailed and all were able to go on with their evening.
During the separation period, however, Murray gestured that someone on the Rockets (presumably Smith) was “too small” to guard him.
Hawks and Rockets getting chippy here 😳
Dejounte Murray calling the Rockets "too small" 👀 pic.twitter.com/Ejb5ux8NTn
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) November 26, 2022
This wasn’t the first time that we saw someone from the Hawks hit the “too small” gesture within this past month. Mic’s recently picked up Young saying the same thing to Milwaukee’s Jevon Carter.
In this case, the “too small” gesture didn’t exactly make sense considering that Houston outrebounded Atlanta 59-29.
Somehow, meanwhile, this also isn’t the first time that Murray has had beef with one of the rookies from the 2022 NBA Draft. Before the season began, Murray also butted heads on social media with No. 1 overall pick and Rookie of the Year favorite Paolo Banchero.
Smith later clarified that the Rockets didn’t like Atlanta’s “disrespect” and wanted to check them for it before it continued any further. The Rockets won 128-122.
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