Wizards guard John Wall was not happy about the cheap shot Matthew Dellavedova put on Bradley Beal during Saturday’s game.
The play in question happened in the fourth quarter of the game, when Beal received a pass on the wing, and attempted to drive the lane, headed for the basket. Dellavedova, however, grabbed Beal up high and dragged him down to the ground. Beal immediately got up and confronted Dellavedova for clotheslining him, and a brief skirmish broke out.
Dellavedova was hit with a Flagrant 2 foul and ejected from the game as a result, but that wasn’t enough for Wall. The Wizards star shared his thoughts about the play with reporters after the game, and said that he’s always believed Dellavedova to be a dirty player.
“Whatever their team can say, and other people can vouch for him, to me, I always just thought he was a dirty player,” Wall said, via Bryan Frantz of 106.7 The Fan (WJFK). “I give him credit, he plays hard, I take nothing away from him for that, but I just feel like he’s a dirty player.
“A guy going full speed, you don’t grab him by his shoulders. You grab him by his waist or whatever else. But the refs did what they had to do and got him out of there, and then we kept continuing to play basketball.”
Wall then pointed out that Dellavedova has a history of being involved in plays that could be considered dirty.
“(Dellavedova’s) known for undercutting guys trying to box him out and stuff like that,” he said. “I give no credit for that. I give credit to him for being a hard player that’s hard-nosed, one of the old-school type players that plays very physically, I give him credit for that. But when it comes to doing dirty plays, I have no respect for him.”
As for Beal, he appeared to be OK afterward, and said he’s “good” following the 110-103 loss. Wall, however, felt the need to stand up for his teammate, and it will be interesting to see if the league takes action in the near future.
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