Hell breaks loose as NBA great throws hands

The moment a basketball coach spectacularly loses the plot is going viral after a TV cameras captured the scenes of pandemonium.

All hell has broken loose at a college basketball game after a former NBA star threw his hands at his opposition coach.

Former NBA player Juwan Howard is now facing a suspension — or worse — after he was ejected from his Michigan University team’s fiery loss to Wisconsin on Monday morning (AEDT).

The Michigan coach got physical after his team’s 77-63 loss and was visibly furious with a late timeout taken by his adversary, Greg Gard.

Howard raised his arm during a scuffle, looking as if he was trying to grab Gard’s face. Howard ended up slapping one of Wisconsin’s assistants.

The two head coaches exchanged words in the handshake line, and it appeared to get heated. They were separated by a number of players and coaches, but then Howard got back into the fray, leading to a mini-brawl and punches thrown by multiple players.

Michigan coach Juwan Howard "threw a right hand". Photo: Twitter, @ColinCowherd.

Michigan coach Juwan Howard smacked one of Wisconsin’s assistants. Photo: Twitter, @ColinCowherd.

Howard, 49, confirmed during his postgame press conference that he did not like Wisconsin’s late timeout and said someone touched him before he got physical.“Well basically, I addressed with the head coach that I will remember that, because of that timeout. For someone to touch me, I think that was very uncalled for, for him to touch me as we were verbalising and communicating with one another,” Howard told reporters. “So that’s what ended up happening. That’s what escalated it.”

One video of the incident posted online had 5 million views in the first hour following the game.

Juwan Howard throws a punch. pic.twitter.com/HiC3y7yKvG

— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) February 20, 2022

Gard gave his version of events, explaining why he took the timeout.“Well, apparently he didn’t like that I called a timeout to reset the 10-second call — because we only had four seconds to get the ball over half-court,” Gard told CBS after the fight.

“I didn’t want to put my backups — I had all my bench guys in the game — I didn’t want to put them in that position of scrambling with only four seconds (left.) So I took a timeout. That got us a new 10 seconds, and helped them get organised to get the ball in. He did not like that when he came through the handshake line. So, I’ll leave it at that and the tape will show the rest.”

Head coach Juwan Howard of the Michigan Wolverines lost it. Photo by Justin Casterline/Getty Images.

— This story originally appeared on nypost.com and has been republished with permission

Originally published as Hell breaks loose as NBA great throws hands