“The NBA Called Me And Said Hell No”: Hall Of Famer Carmelo Anthony Recalls NBA Banning The ‘Cojones’ Celebration

Carmelo Anthony recalls the time the NBA banned his favorite celebration.

4 Min Read

Mandatory Credit: Troy Wayrynen-Imagn Images

Carmelo Anthony’s three-to-the-dome gesture is a legendary celebration that is widely used in the league and even in street basketball. But Anthony pointed to another celebration that will go down as his favorite.

The former Knicks forward revealed it is actually Sam Cassell’s ‘Big Balls’ celebration, also known as the ‘Cojones’ celebration, that he always wanted to take forward. But the league had other plans.

“There are some legendary ones. I’m gonna tell you one that got banned! It was like Sam Cassell’s ‘Big Balls’, like as a kid you always wanted to do that when you hit a big shot.” Anthony said.

Anthony was on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” to promote his Hall of Fame Ceremony this weekend. He revealed how the NBA had to intervene once he made the gesture during a game.

“I carried that over to the NBA, and I made a big shot. I did it one time, and the NBA called me and said, ‘Hell no.’ I said, Sam Cassell’s doing it!’ But no. That’s a special celebration right there.” Anthony tried to reason with the officials, but it did not work out.

While Carmelo Anthony did not specify when exactly he did the celebration, considering that no video evidence is available on the internet, it can be assumed it was from back in his days with the Nuggets, when social media was not as prevalent as it is today.

The celebration Anthony is referring to has landed other players in trouble as well. LeBron James famously paid a $15,000 fine for using the “obscene gesture” after he hit a three to tie the game against the Indiana Pacers. Fred VanVleet got the same treatment before King James. Even Kobe Bryant was seen doing it back in the day.

Cassell was the first one to use the gesture that the league later officially termed and banned as an “obscene gesture”. But once Cassell did it, it quickly became a viral moment even before social media. 

In a 2024 interview, the former Minnesota Timberwolves point guard revealed that the celebration was inspired by a 1994 film, Major League II. He watched a player use it and took it up from there.

“Somebody hit a home run, he jumped up on the fence and caught the ball, and he just came down with the big balls. I was like, I like that, I’m stealing that.” Cassell told Draymond Green.

The NBA has shown a strict policy against celebratory gestures that can be classified as obscene. Insinuating gestures such as ‘Humping the air,’ or gestures that promote violence, such as ‘finger guns’ or ‘pulling/throwing a grenade,’ have landed players in trouble in the past.

At the end of the day, NBA athletes are role models for millions of children, and even though they have the right to express themselves as adults as they deem fit, they need to be cognizant of their stage and how many people will repeat what they showcase.

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Chaitanya Dadhwal is an NBA Analyst and Columnist at Fadeaway World from New Delhi, India. He fell in love with basketball in 2018 after seeing James Harden in his prime. He joined the sports journalism world in 2021, one year before finishing his law school in 2022. He attended Jindal Global Law School in Sonipat, India, where his favorite subject was also Sports Law.He transitioned from law to journalism after realizing his true passion for sports and basketball in particular. Even though his journalism is driven by his desire to understand both sides of an argument and give a neutral perspective, he openly admits he is biased towards the Houston Rockets and Arsenal. But that intersection of in-depth analysis and passion helps him simplify the fine print and complex language for his readers.His goal in life is to open his own sports management agency one day and represent athletes. He wants to ensure he can help bridge the gap in equal opportunity for athletes across various sports and different genders playing the same sport.
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