MILWAUKEE — Late on Wednesday night, in the tunnel near the visitor’s locker room at Fiserv Forum, Adrian Griffin ran into Rick Carlisle on his way out.
“We good coach?” Griffin asked. The words hung in the air without a reply for a few seconds, until Carlisle muttered back, “yeah.” His tone and demeanor suggested the opposite.
Just minutes earlier, the same spot where they now stood had been the site of a near brawl when Bucks players chased down the Pacers after the final buzzer in search of the game ball for Giannis Antetokounmpo, who had finished with a franchise-record 64 points in a 140-126 win.
The game, which officially clocked in at a laborious two hours and 48 minutes, featured an all-time milestone, a flagrant foul, multiple technicals, an ejection and a career and franchise-record for a two-time MVP. And no one cared about any of it because of a literal basketball mystery.
It was, without a doubt, the strangest night I’ve ever had covering a basketball game.
‘The man wanted that ball’
As the clock wound down on what would be a comfortable win for the Bucks, no one was paying much attention to the Pacers’ bench area. Reporters (including myself) across the court in the press box were packing up when suddenly there was a sense of commotion.
I looked up just in time to see multiple Bucks players heading down the Pacers’ tunnel, which, of course, is not supposed to happen. Soon thereafter, Antetokounmpo reappeared and began angrily yelling and gesturing at Tyrese Haliburton, who was still on the court.
“For some reason he wanted to confront me,” Haliburton would say later. “I was just standing out there.”
It was clear something big was happening, especially when we were prevented from making our usual walk to the interview rooms by security, and needed a Bucks PR staff member to escort us there through a separate tunnel.
We soon got to talk to Cameron Payne, who was one of the players in the mix behind the scenes. His short and sweet response summed things up better than anyone else could.
“The man wanted that ball,” Payne said.
