Isaiah Stewart charges LeBron after being bloodied, a breakdown
What Happened
On November 21, 2021, during a Lakers-Pistons game in Detroit, LeBron James and Isaiah Stewart got tangled up boxing out for a free throw. As they jostled, LeBron swung an arm back and caught Stewart flush, his elbow hitting the forehead first and his hand raking across Stewart's nose and lip. Stewart started bleeding badly and lost it, repeatedly breaking away from coaches, trainers, and security to charge after LeBron across the court. Both players were ejected, and the Lakers ended up winning anyway.
Why This Matters
This was only the second ejection of LeBron's career, which tells you how rare it is for him to draw a flagrant 2. The contact looked accidental in slow motion, more of a scrape than a haymaker, but the league still suspended Stewart two games for his refusal to stop charging. LeBron got one game. The optics mattered: a bloodied young player chasing the face of the league while officials and his own coaches kept dragging him back. Detroit's frustration that night ran deeper than one play, since the Pistons were buried near the bottom of the standings and Stewart was a 20-year-old trying to make a name. The Lakers, meanwhile, turned the chaos into a rally and walked off with the road win.
At 2.9M views it ranks 58th of 1,583 Jomboy breakdowns, putting it in the top 3.7% of the entire catalog.
Key Moments
Who / What Is Involved
Players: LeBron James, Isaiah Stewart. Teams: Lakers, Pistons.
Full Transcript
we got a lot of blood and a lot of one guy trying to run through everyone else in the lakers pistons game last night it's brought to you by draftkings download the number one draftking sportsbook app use promo code john boy when you do they're gonna get into position here lebron slides over he's right next to stuart they're hanging out gonna watch the shot together take it in have a good time and stewart just throws his elbow right into lebron he's just pushing him pushing him pushing him lebron decides he doesn't like it so he punches him in the face he's like hey stop pushing me bam bam bam and his elbow actually makes contact with his forehead first you can see the forehead on stewart kind of like wrinkle like right there you see if you're looking like right here kind of kind of wrinkles up because his elbow gets him first and then the hand comes through and just kind of scrapes at his whole lip and face slow-mo it looks more like a scrape but i mean in in live time bam got him boom kind of gets the nose a little bit too the whole face and lebron right away is like oh [ __ ] dude sorry sorry sorry sorry did i punch you when i punched you man i didn't mean to punch you while i was punching you my bad oh you got some blood on me that's [ __ ] he gets up he doesn't even know what to say he's like bro you just hit me all over you just went from eye nose and mouth you got my entire face they're trying to calm him down wrap him up and he's like yo go talk...