Since his days at Duke, Grayson Allen became an infamous figure among basketball fans and sports analysts alike. His several incidents with tripping his rivals and committing dirty fouls made him go from a lottery pick to an afterthought in the NBA Draft.
Allen, while undeniably talented, seemed to be a dirty player by default. Every time things got hard or he had the chance to, he deliberately tried to hurt his rival. That's not something we're saying, but something well-documented on tape for everybody in the world to see.
Recently, Allen's dirty nature was once again at a full display, grabbing Chicago Bulls' Alex Caruso mid-air, shoving him to the ground, and forcing him to miss 6-8 weeks with a wrist injury.
Mike Budenholzer Says He Loves Grayson Allen's 'Toughness'
But even despite Allen's obvious intentions of hurting Caruso, his long history with dirty and deplorable fouls and temper tantrums, and Caruso's injury, coach Mike Budenholzer still says he disagrees with Allen's one-game suspension:
“I think we disagree with the decision but we support Grayson,” Budenholzer said, per Drake Bentley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “We look forward to having him back. I think we’re all ready to just move forward.
“It’s very, very, very unfortunate what happened to Alex Caruso," Budenholzer added. "None of us want injury to happen to anybody at any time for any reason. Our thoughts are with Alex. Our thoughts are with the team with Coach (Billy) Donovan. You don’t want that, but at the same time, Grayson and what he’s meant to us has been unbelievable. We love his toughness, we love his competitiveness and we look forward to having him back on Friday.”
Jrue Holiday Says Allen Isn't A Dirty Player
Bucks star Jrue Holiday seemed to be on the same page with his coach. Somehow, someway, he wants us all to think that Grayson Allen, of all people, it's actually not a dirty basketball player:
"We're always going to be a team, we're going to be brothers," Holiday said. "Grayson, we know Grayson. He's not that type of player. He didn't do it maliciously and he didn't want to see Caruso get hurt. I feel like those are the type of guys we recruit and we love playing with. Grayson didn't do it on purpose. We know that and he knows that, so he knows that we have his back."
Even before this incident, Allen was welcomed with jeers and boos on nearly every court, and we don't see that changing any time soon. Hopefully, he won't be on the wrong end of one of those dirty fouls somewhere down the line.
