Heat, Pelicans get into nasty NBA brawl as Naji Marshall grabs Jimmy Butler’s neck

Superstar Jimmy Butler was among the players ejected after a series of brawls broke out in an NBA game in New Orleans.

Smoothie King Center descended into chaos on Friday night (Saturday AEDT), and while the Heat won the game, the talk from this one surely won’t be the final score.

Early in the fourth quarter in New Orleans, the Heat and Pelicans got into a full-on brawl — with Naji Marshall and Jimmy Butler at the centre of the quarrel — in what became a brutal scene, as the New York Post reports.

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Things started with a little over 11 minutes left in the quarter when Pelicans star Zion Williamson went up and missed a shot, which he thought he was fouled on.

After Butler rebounded the ball, though, Williamson stole it back in the paint, going up for a shot near the net before he was fouled hard by Kevin Love.

That’s when Marshall came in and appeared to give Love a bit of a shove, which set off Butler, who in turn pushed Marshall.

Naji Marshall and Jimmy Butler get involved in an altercation during the fourth quarter as Kevin Love looks on. (Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images)

Butler said after the game that he believed Williamson flopped on the Love foul.

“Then (Marshall) came and put his hands on K-Love and that’s how it all escalated,” Butler said, per the Associated Press.

For his part, Williamson said he wasn’t angry with Love.

“I wasn’t tripping about K-Love because he actually protected me on my fall,” Williamson said after the game.

“All of a sudden I see Butler kind of lunging toward Naji, so I‘m trying to get there like, ‘Yo, relax, like what’s going on?’

“It’s people competing — people riding for their teammates,” he added.

The Pelicans’ small forward took exception to this and grabbed Butler’s neck and that’s when things really got out of hand in a moving scrum.

Kevin Love and Zion Williamson get tangled up and Naji Marshall is restrained. Photos: Getty Images

Multiple players and coaches from both teams ending up at centre court and trying to quell what was already more than a testy scene.

After the teams came close together at least twice in tense moments, they were eventually separated and went back to their benches.

Marshall and Butler were both ejected from the game as well as the Pelicans’ Jose Alvarado and the Heat’s Thomas Bryant.

A video from a fan in the stands appeared to show Alvarado and Byrant coming to blows near the scorer’s table before they were ultimately tossed from the game.

Something was bound to pop off, boys was at home going crazy over the All Star break 😂🤣

— MR INT’L (@2INTL4U) February 24, 2024

The Bally Sports New Orleans feed also caught things getting chippy in the stands, as a fan in a Dwyane Wade Heat jersey appeared to be escorted out of the venue.

“It was just, I think, a misunderstanding of the play,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said.

“I think Zion slipped on the play when K-Love grabbed him and it looked a lot worse than what it was.

“And then everybody kind of overreacted.”

For the record, the Heat would eventually win the game 106-95, led by Bam Adebayo’s 24 points and 23 from Butler prior to his ejection.

This article originally appeared in the New York Post and was reproduced with permission

Originally published as Heat, Pelicans get into nasty NBA brawl as Naji Marshall grabs Jimmy Butler’s neck