Lance Stephenson was happy to be back at “home” and with the Pacers.
The Toronto Raptors shared exactly how they felt about Lance Stephenson’s unchallenged layup, both on the court and in the locker room with media, after their double-digit loss to the Pacers at Bankers Life Fieldhouse on Tuesday.
But, as was discovered less than 12 hours later, the Raptors had a similar situation one year ago … and handled it worse.
Rookie Norman Powell deflected a pass, then scooped up the ball with just three seconds left. Despite being up by 22 points on the Philadelphia 76ers, the 2015 second-round pick then completed a windmill for his 18th point of the game.
WOW. The Raptors don’t really have a leg to stand on! Remember this @DeMar_DeRozan @DeMarreCarroll1 !? #WeTheNorth (vid @AQUPAS) pic.twitter.com/NizJjnAqhc
— The Fuzz (@TheFuzzNBA) April 5, 2017
This was in the Raptors’ second-to-last regular-season game on April 12, 2016. Even the television commentator got into it.
The video made its way to Stephenson, who is active on social media and was called several names by those in the opposing locker room. P.J. Tucker, who was traded by Phoenix to Toronto mid-season, called Stephenson “tasteless and classless. All-Star DeMar DeRozan said he believed Lance “disrespected the game.”
[Raptors angered by Lance Stephenson’s last-second layup]
After Stephenson’s layup, he was sandwiched by Tucker and DeRozan, and all three were assessed technical fouls. Stephenson appealed his technical Wednesday, according to league sources — and for good reason. He took the heated words and walked away, directly to the Pacers’ bench.
“They got mad at me for what I did but look at this,” he wrote on Instagram Wednesday afternoon. “All I did was jelly. When Lance Stephenson do it’s a big deal.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/BShGQxflX06/
One thing true with Lance: Things are never boring. You take the good and the bad.
And while the Raptors over-reacted about a petty thing — and the overreaction surely was because of the trash-talking throughout the game rather than the layup — it turns out they aren’t exactly followers of the same “unwritten rule” they accused Stephenson of breaking.
Glad to see that now everybody knows they are hypocrits.and that was worse cause it was like he was in the dunk contest with nobody on him! Craptors can crawl into their hole now.