Bucks guard Grayson Allen was at it again with his dirty antics against Chicago on Wednesday.
Nearly one year after Allen ripped Alex Caruso to the ground on a fastbreak, causing the Bulls guard to miss almost two months of action with a fractured right wrist, he pulled another cheap shot on one of Caruso’s teammates.
This time, Allen was pushed by Patrick Williams as he went to set a ball screen on DeMar DeRozan, but there appeared to be a little bit of a followthrough when he tried to brace himself.
DeMar DeRozan was not happy with Grayson Allen after this play. pic.twitter.com/YpUGOl6WX3
— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) December 29, 2022
DeRozan immediately jumped up to confront Allen, later stating that Allen’s dirty history caused that uncharacteristic reaction.
“It’s his track record. If it was Boban (Marjanovic), I wouldn’t have did nothing. I didn’t know if it was on purpose, I just felt the excessive hit and that’s all it was,” DeRozan said after the game.
The play adds to a lengthy list of similar dirty shots from the Bucks guard. Here’s a look back at how Allen earned his dirty reputation.
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Timeline of Grayson Allen’s dirty plays
For starters, Allen has a five-minute (!) compilation of dirty plays and moments on YouTube from his time at Duke. That alone shows there is a track record here.
It took several dirty plays for Duke to take action, but eventually, in 2016, Allen was suspended “indefinitely” after blatantly trying to trip an Elon player as he drove to the basket.
This was far from the first instance — it was his third tripping incident alone, actually — as he had already been caught tripping a player from Louisville the previous season. He also had a few other low-light moments, like throwing a random hip check on a fast break against North Carolina that resulted in a Flagrant 1 foul.
The shameful part is that Allen’s “indefinite” suspension only lasted one game.
You can watch the full five-minute video below.
This trend wasn’t squashed once he got to the NBA, though.
At the NBA’s 2019 Summer League, Allen was ejected from a game after delivering not one, but two flagrant fouls on Celtics forward Grant Williams.
Grayson Allen’s first flagrant, for those asking pic.twitter.com/KO9vgPGaSX
— CJ Fogler AKA Perc70 #BlackLivesMatter (@cjzero) July 12, 2019
It continued in 2020 when Allen and Hawks star guard Trae Young had a back-and-forth exchange on Twitter over a play that Young deemed as dirty.
Damn… tell me what y’all see!! Smh🤦🏽♂️ this gotta stop.! #ifyoudontknownowyouknow pic.twitter.com/AgrPR1qRze
— Trae Young (@TheTraeYoung) December 27, 2020
Allen didn’t seem to agree with Young’s assessment.
Damn that must’ve really really hurt. I’m sorry. I hope you’re okay https://t.co/Uwyl7s2Q2v
— Grayson Allen (@GraysonJAllen) December 27, 2020
And then there was last year’s play that forced Caruso to miss almost two full months of action with a fractured right wrist because Allen ripped him to the ground on a fastbreak layup.
Grayson Allen draws a flagrant 2 for a HARD foul on Alex Caruso pic.twitter.com/NjCJEzo7zu
— Bulls Talk (@NBCSBulls) January 22, 2022
The next day, Allen responded via Discord, saying “it was very unfortunate how it played out. I jumped to block it with my left and as I’m spinning went to grab the ball with my right hand not throw him down. It was a really hard fall and I’m glad he’s okay. If I could do the play over again knowing he’d fall like that I wouldn’t make the play.”
Just shy of a year later — against the same team, nonetheless — Allen’s shot at DeRozan rubbed the five-time All-Star the wrong way.
Bulls announcer Stacey King — a three-time champion with Chicago back in the 1990s — did not hold back his feelings after the play.
“Somebody needs to give him a two-piece. I guarantee you he’ll stop doing that,” King said on the air. “Somebody pop him upside his head a couple of times and he’ll stop doing that. Because he’s getting away with that too much.”
Allen has not yet responded to his actions this time around.
