Watch: 4 playoff scuffles that put Oubre-Olynyk to shame
Thursday's one-sided mini-brawl (if you could even call it that) between the Washington Wizards' Kelly Oubre and the Boston Celtics' Kelly Olynyk following a hard screen by the Canadian center looks fairly tame when compared to other physical altercations in NBA playoff history.
The league shows less tolerance for such incidents in today's game, so it's rare to see players get caught up in the heat of the moment and lunge at someone with the intent to do bodily harm, like Oubre did.
These four postseason melees from the past will take you back to a time when talent was ready to put up its dukes at a moment's notice, and make what Oubre and Olynyk did look softer than two-ply toilet paper.
Danny Ainge (Boston Celtics) vs. Tree Rollins (Atlanta Hawks), 1983
Ainge was a 6-foot-4 guard, and Rollins was a 7-foot-1 giant.
Size doesn't always matter, apparently, as Ainge speared the much larger player to the ground with relative ease after taking Rollins' elbow straight to his face.
What elevates this wrangle to legendary status is Rollins biting Ainge's finger right through to the tendon while on the ground. The bite required stitches and even a tetanus shot.
Kevin McHale (Celtics) vs. Kurt Rambis (Los Angeles Lakers), 1984
If all you're going for is a personal foul, you might as well get your money's worth.
No one was suspended or fined after McHale decked Rambis with a clothesline that even former WWE champion John "Bradshaw" Layfield would envy.
The benches emptied, tempers flared, and Rambis' trademark goggles didn't budge as the Lakers faithful chanted "Boston sucks" at the opposition.
P.J. Brown (Miami Heat) vs. Charlie Ward (New York Knicks), 1997
Brown had received that season's J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award for showing "outstanding service and dedication to the community" prior to Miami's second-round matchup with the Knicks.
Had the league witnessed Brown flip Ward out of bounds like the pair was performing a Cirque du Soleil act, perhaps it would have reconsidered that honor.
Unlike the Rambis and McHale incident, suspensions for this were handed out like free samples, with five Knicks (Ward, Patrick Ewing, Allan Houston, Larry Johnson, and John Starks) and Brown hit hard by the most severe playoff penalty ever imposed.
Alonzo Mourning (Heat) vs. Larry Johnson (Knicks), 1998
If you think the Celtics and Wizards have bad blood now, take a walk down memory lane and visit the Knicks-Heat rivalry in the late '90s.
Heavyweights Mourning and Johnson did their best Muhammad Ali-George Foreman impression (or tried to, anyway) with just seconds remaining in the fourth quarter of Game 4.
Poor Jeff Van Gundy hung onto Mourning's leg for dear life during the fracas, like this clingy panda with a soft spot for the zookeeper.