Grayson Allen made it to the United Center on Friday night, facing a team and plenty of fans that had anything but love for him. The Milwaukee Bucks player starred in a very controversial moment when he injured Alex Caruso back in January, earning the hate from all the people in Chicago.
As expected, he was received with plenty of boos after hurting one of the most beloved players in the NBA. The Bulls expected to make an impact on the controversial player, but Allen couldn’t care less about them.
After the game was over, he addressed the boos, saying that he had heard worse when he played for Duke, so the people of Chicago didn’t really affect him.
“That was weak, I’ve had way worse in college,” he said, according to Brandon Sneide.
Grayson Allen asked about the crowd im post-game interview: “That was weak, I’ve had way worse in college.”#FearTheDeer
— Brandon Sneide (@Brandon_Sneide) March 5, 2022
Moreover, that wasn’t the only bad thing Allen had to get through during the game. Derrick Jones Jr. hit him in the head with his elbow, getting a flagrant-1 foul for that action. Following the game, DJJ made it clear he was just playing and didn’t mean to hurt Grayson or get revenge for Caruso.
Via NBC Sports:
“Get a stop. That’s all that goes through my head,” Jones Jr. said when asked if the foul carried special intent. “I’m not a dirty player. I talked to every ref that was there today. I don’t think it was a flagrant. They said I hit him in his head. I didn’t feel it. I just felt him bump my hip and fall. That’s all I felt.
“Y’all trying to make it something it ain’t. I ain’t even tripping off that. It’s basketball. I want to get a stop as much as they want to get a stop on the other end. What happened in Milwaukee, we didn’t like it. It’s obvious that we didn’t like it. Nobody likes that.
“But I’m not going to go out there and just try to take a man out. That’s not who I am. If I get a foul while in the process of trying to get a stop, then so be it. But I ain’t gonna try to blatantly take that man out. He got a family to take care of. Why would I do that?”
Prior to the game, Tristan Thompson had stated he didn’t like what he saw from Allen when he took down Alex Caruso in January. It looked like TT would do something to make Grayson pay, but nothing happened in the end.
The Bucks had the last laugh, as they left United Center with a hard-fought 118-112 win, tying the Bulls at 3rd seed in the Eastern Conference. Chicago has lost the last four games, including three against top-4 teams in both conferences. They need to make some improvements because the Boston Celtics, Cleveland Cavaliers, Brooklyn Nets and Toronto Raptors are all trying to climb positions and make it to the top 4.
