Swaggy P blames ejection to season-long frustration
Being blocked by Anthony Tolliver when attempting a fourth-quarter dunk was the straw that broke Nick Young's swag.
Tolliver's clean foul surely did not call for Young to push him and deliver a forearm to his throat, a reaction that costed Young a flagrant-2 foul and ejection with only 8:58 remaining on the Los Angeles Lakers' 111-91 loss to the Detroit Pistons on Sunday at the Palace of Auburn Hills.
Young made a mea culpa the following morning and attributed his outburst - for which he won't face additional discipline - to his team's poor performance.
"There's a lot of frustrations," Young said, according to Mark Medina of LA Daily News. "It was building up. Everything happened on that play. He just happened to be the one that sparked the incident."
Despite Young's remorse, not even coach Byron Scott can defend the 30-year-old's outburst or help him reverse his sanction.
"Tolliver didn't go after him," Scott said. "(Tolliver) went up and tried to contest the shot and wasn't going to give (Young) a layup. I was surprised in the way Nick reacted to it."
Putting aside the Lakers' performance this season, Young has even more reasons to be frustrated considering Scott reduced his playing minutes in order to try out the slightly taller Metta World Peace in the small forward position.
"I'm trying some other things," Scott said. "I told him to be patient. As a matter of fact, he’s been great."
"Swaggy P" can not say his situation with the Lakers is "great," most recently calling the team a "circus act."