OG Anunoby and Desmond Bane got into a verbal altercation after the Magic guard threw the ball at the Knicks forward to seemingly hurt him intentionally during their most recent matchup. Following the incident, Desmond Bane was assessed a technical foul and eventually fined $35,000 for his ‘unsportsmanlike’ conduct in this situation.
Desmond Bane WYD⁉️😭 pic.twitter.com/WTU2qswlYK
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) December 7, 2025
However, former NBA player DeMarcus Cousins was particularly unhappy with OG Anunoby for the way he responded to Bane’s conduct. Even though Anunoby shoved Bane after he threw the ball, Cousins felt the response was nowhere close to being proportional to what the Magic veteran had done.
Cousins appeared on FanDuel’s Run It Back with other NBA veterans, Chandler Parsons and Lou Williams, and spoke his mind about the incident. Here’s a part of their conversation on the incident:
Cousins: “Assault, Battery.”
Williams: “That’s assault, brother, what’s wrong with you? Look at OG, he said ‘What’s up with you, bro?”
Parsons: “Everyone knows you do this if you’re falling out of bounds and you’re off balance. This man took a step towards him, looked down his soul, and pegged it… There’s just no way I can rewatch this and say he was off balance. Kudos to OG for not–“
Cousins: “No, it’s not kudos to OG… I’m not saying punch him in the face, but maybe, slap the sh** out of him [because] that’s crazy, that’s crazy. I’m not going for that, that’s crazy.”
Parsons: “Not to mention, you know, like when you fall out of bounds, and you throw it, you kind of tell him sorry, right? He didn’t even apologize.”
Cousins: “He almost doubled down, though.”
Parsons: “This was malicious. The refs didn’t even know what to do.”
Following the game, while Bane did not react to this incident, Anunoby was asked about it, and he hilariously pointed to his own lack of reflexes at the time.
“I should have caught it,” he reportedly said. What was even more odd to observe was that Bane and Anunoby hugged each other after the game, therefore showing no animosity towards one another.
Bane scored 10 of his 16 points in the game during the third quarter alone. He was helping the Magic regain momentum until the Knicks hit back at them down the stretch. So far this season, the veteran has averaged 18.3 points, 4.5 assists, and 4.4 rebounds while shooting 32.5% from the three-point range.
The Magic were failing to make a comeback run and were down by 11 points (80-91) at the time of this incident. While the play eventually ended in the Magic’s favor, throwing the ball like that was clearly unnecessary, as they already had possession, and Bane was not falling out of bounds. Clearly, therefore, stemming from some frustration.
This is not the first time Bane has, for no justifiable reason, tossed the ball at a player falling out of bounds. Earlier, it was an incident with Onyeka Okongwu of the Hawks, which got Bane ejected from the game, and now it was Anunoby.
EJECTED! Desmond Bane was ejected after he pulled Onyeka Okongwu to the ground, then spiked the ball at him like a volleyball 😂😳
Good or bad ejection? 🤔 pic.twitter.com/cdf2qM9fhj
— Courtside Buzz (@CourtsideBuzzX) November 5, 2025
Is there really something wrong with Bane? Should the Magic step in and take more action? Let us know what you think in the comments section.
