Nicolas Batum punches Juan Carlos Navarro in the groin near the end of France-Spain quarterfinal
Apparently Nicolas Batum doesn't like Juan Carlos Navarro or the Spanish national team very much. With time winding down in Spain's 66-59 men's basketball quarterfinal win over the French, Batum wound up and punched Navarro as hard as he could. In the groin. Seriously, man, that's not cool.
Batum, a member of the NBA's Portland Trail Blazers, was later asked by Yahoo!'s Adrian Wojnarowski why he hit Navarro, and he said, "I wanted to give him a good reason to flop."
Wojnarowski explained that Batum apparently believed the Spanish purposely tanked their preliminary game against Brazil in order to face France in the quarterfinals.
Batum was not ejected for the foul, and now that France is out of the tournament any kind of discipline probably won't be severe.
What Batum didn't mention is that he was likely also upset by his performance Wednesday. He played 32 minutes but registered only nine points on 3-of-12 shooting.
Clearly, he was frustrated. But taking a swing at a player is never acceptable, especially when you're targeting his junk. Again, not cool, bro.
UPDATE: Batum has issued an apology via Twitter, claiming he was sorry for his "stupid act at the end." He also congratulated the Spanish on their win.
Image: Buzzfeed Sports
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76 Comments:
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He should be ejected from the Olympic Games.
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His team was just eliminated. No real point in doing that.
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With punches like that, no wonder the German army was able to occupy France without firing a shot. If you are going to ruin your Olympic non-career on unsportsmanlike stuff like that, you go all out and punch him in the face! Once again the French live up to their reputation as cowardly. (the French resistance excluded of course).
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1. Nice f&*king headline. Not "NBA" player. FRENCH player.
2. As someone who has played much basketball, and not wanting to defend a cheese sucking, surrender monkey Frenchman, it looks like he was trying to punch the ball loose. -
nba player portland trailblazers
definitely not going for ball. -
Which ball are you talking about ? Looks like he hit the one he was aiming for.
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"cheese sucking, surrender monkey Frenchman" ????
You my friend are st&*#d as 5h1t...smh.. -
...and the NBA
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I love Batum, he plays for our Blazers but this is unnaceptable anywhere in sports (except maybe the WWE when the ref isnt looking). I feel Blazer management should suspend him for a couple games to start the season. His actions make Portland (and the NBA) look bad. For those who say he was going for the ball, you obviously never played basketball. You dont swipe at the ball with your cocked back fist, you swipe with an open hand.
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Yes Laker Fan. I love Batum, he plays for our Blazers but this is unnaceptable anywhere in sports (except maybe the WWE when the ref isnt looking). I feel Blazer management should suspend him for a couple games to start the season. His actions make Portland (and the NBA) look bad. For those who say he was going for the ball, you obviously never played basketball. You dont swipe at the ball with your fist, you swipe with an open hand.
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Another example of a primadonna professional athlete. Should be banned from future participation in the Olympics though. What a jerk!
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Wow, talk about shwacked in the schlong.................I felt that crap all the way her in Indiana USA, man.................
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What can you expect from an street punk!
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[not displayed: comment from locked account]
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ur even sillier! why don't you date embordeaux? and have a silly baby?
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How'd you manage to type that clever quip with ur head up ur a$$?
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I guess you must've been looking up there for your brain! D-bag.
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"It stems from a cultural and genetic defect that diminishes one's ability to control one's impulses." - of course punching someone in the schlong is totally different from say spraying a crowd with bullets or molesting a minor. Details, details.
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ur silly - bet you're a plump colorless person who got picked on in school- for your lousy attitude
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A white player probably would have got his gun and shot him in the balls, then turn the gun on innocents in the audience. Ya'll sure love to shoot up.
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Hell yeah, Home Skillet ! You done got that sheet right.
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That has got to be the biggest punk move I've ever seen in my life during a sporting event. Can there be a more cowardly un-manly thing to do than sucker-punch a guy dribbling a basketball in his junk? And the way he did it?!! Who's gonna respect this guy now? I wouldn't want him on my team. And I thought the Zindane World Cup head butt was the low point of French sportsmanship. Who's raising these un-manly children?
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Yes, to answer your question, there has been a bigger punk move: his named [ used to be] Ron Artest. Now his name is World Peace....tragically funny. AND, Mr Peace attacked a "brother"...! LMFAO
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On top of him being pure trash, he punches like a 12 year old girl- Bahahahahah!
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what the F was that, look at his eyes after the hit, like an animal. I would twist him in half if I was a team mate. What a freak of the Olympics. Throw that BUM out of London.
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Piss poor sportsmanship. Whole Spanish team should have cold cocked the S.O.B.
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He was hit in the groin. Was confirmed afterwards that he was hit in the groin and Batum even admitted that's where he was aiming.
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he punches like a lil girl!!! I hope he gets expelled..someone should throw him in the boxin ring with clarresa shields..Im sure she would beat the crap outta him..haha
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haha,thats what I tought also!
He REALLY punches like a little girl. That fist,loll....that fist is the funniest thing of it all!!!
I'm watching the .gif and I cant stop looking at that fist... -
This is the main reason that I hate the NBA anyway. Most players are a bunch of thug mentality crybabies when things don't go their way. This should be enough reason for the IOC and US Olympic teams to ban professional athletes from, what is supposed to be, an event that unites the entire world into one common bond...sportsmanship!
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Right, sportsmanship. Unfortunately that utopian dream has never really been realized in modern times. There's always some sort of scandal
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No ejection. $100 says that David Stern won't do a damn thing either. Off-season activity is not immune from discipline. Feral beasts, however, are immune from having it.
Assault charges by the local bobbies? -
I think he was going for the ball.
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Yep, he was trying to knock the ball out...can you believe all these dummies who just echo what the news wire says....incredible
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He admitted later that he wasn't going for the ball. See the interview with Wojnarowski. It was completely intentional.
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He should never be allowed to play at any olympics games anymore. Make an example of him for poor sportmanship. But again because his black nothing will be done. The Olympic leadership doesnt whant to be called racist.
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Why wasn't he ejected from the games. This is definitely not good sportsmanship. What a yahoo. Another reason to dislike the French.
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That piece of garbage should be totally banned from ever participating in another Olympics in his miserable lifetime. He clearly has no clue whatsoever what the Olympic Spirit is all about. What a totally classless piece of garbage.
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He should be ejected from the Olympics. As Olympians and professional athletes they shoud be setting the example of how to behave and good sportsmanship. I didn't even allow my children to engage in the "hey batter-batter.... banter", because I taught my children that they can win with skill and not with distraction or mental abuse tactics.Of course, this is only my opinion.
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Not only is he trash, but he punches like a 12 year old girl.
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A metaphor - maybe I should say "microcosm of? - on our society today, isn't it. No matter what crime statistics say, no matter what statistics concerning violence say, we are forced by politically correctness to accept this kind of outrage. They are violent, so liberal political correctness demands that we all turn in our guns. Certain of us can drive like maniacs while the rest pay higher insurance premiums in order for insurers to write them the coverage politically correct law requires. And so on, infinitum.
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What makes this a microcosm of society? Besides, this is the most peaceful time in the history of civilization, so what are you talking about? The fact that people from around the world are on this page discussing this relatively minor event that happened at the Olympics earlier TODAY is more of a microcosm of society than the punch we're discussing.
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Hey some of you dummies, he was trying to knock the ball not his nuts
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As mentioned above, he later admitted he wasn't going for the ball and was aiming for his groin.
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That's just wrong!
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You can see that he intended to knock the ball out of the opposing players hands which to my knowledge is not illegal at all, of course he apparently was over exuberant, in his efforts at least you cant say he does not follow through. Still the best plan would have been to have retreated once he should have realized that the strategy was going to fail, sometimes its hard to know when to stop he had a good shot at removing the ball from the players control without the foul however once the player stepped to the side it was impossible to make it work. Final analysis it was not intentional, it was poorly planned and it the result was just as poor however the biased antiquity of the article is classic yellow journalism.
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That's a lotta bullsheit and you know it.
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As mentioned several times, Batum admitted that he was trying to punch him in the groin.
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Not cool??? That could be dangerous. Batum should be fined and banned from the next Olympics! What a jerk and a poor example for the young people watching. I am sad to say that he lives in the U.S. I am ashamed of him.
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Haha.... Somewhere over the rainbow, skies are blue...... Hahahaha...good one.
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Banned from the Olympics in the future..........and maybe the NBA should consider if they want a thug playing ball for them.
Not a very good representation for NBA or for France. -
Wait a second - to me that looked like a foul going after the ball, but not a deliberate nut-punch. The ball rolled his hand to the groin. Again, defnitely a foul, but come on...
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That isn't a punch, thats a bitch slap.
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Didn't that happen to one of our guys the last game? I would recommend a nut cup for these games. Man that stuff hurts from here....
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The Video: Olympian's dive goes horribly wrong link sends people to a page infected with a VIRUS.... WTF
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The link Video: Olympian's dive goes horribly wrong SENDS PEOPLE TO A PAGE INFECTED WITH A VIRUS>>>> WTF
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With the constant comments referring to influencing our youth, combined with the fact of Batman being an adult & professional (obviously lacking the evidence here) and past the "learning the game" stage, he should be held accountable for his decisions/lack of sportsmanship and removed immediately from the Olympics. I would also hope that the Trail Blazers would imediately let him go as well. Until there is a clear and definite demonstration of consequences for the lack of good character and integrity, unfortunately this type of behavior will continue to be seen.
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Yeah, it's what he is learning in the United States: Solve problems with violence and mock other people while one's at it, too...
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Hopfully someone will give him the old one two punch, then when he is down, I hope they kick him in the groin and end his chances of ever producing children.
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Inner city street punk!
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inner ciddy stweet punk -did ur mommie 4 get to pick u up after school? where does it say he's from the inner city?
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Why does this not surprise me, in the past few years more athletes are in criminal news than the general population. It's sad that these athletes has talent enough to be called a professional player yet don't have enough sense to understand young people look up to them. I wish Professional Sports Chairmen would eject a professional athlete that does anything unsportsman like. They are suppose to be mentors to our young people and future leaders. Make it part of their contract. Athletes need to be held accountable for their actions, just as most working people are held accountable. It should happen but won't because society accepts the behavior of others no matter how bad the situation is.
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Send this Frog packing is what I say. These European 3rd world basketball thugs are a mean bunch of guys. This Frog does that there because he knows if he pulls that stunt in the NBA he would be suspended and fined. The blazers could send him packing for that non-sense. Here in the Wimplympics he gets praised by 3rd world (IOC) euro trash. Thats right, I said it. Lets see how that plays back in the NBA.
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A player like Nicolas Batum has no place in the NBA. I hope the Trailblazers don't get him back. He is a disgrace to whatever team he is playing with.He should be barred from the NBA for life. He is not even a good player, I have never heard of him until today.
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What a poor sport ! What amazes me is that there have been a few instances in the 2012 games of unsportsmanship behavior towards others and the Olympic committee have looked the other way, or have done nothing ! Appalling !! This is why these poor sports do this , they know they will not get in trouble. This has got to change ! What a sad example we are setting for our youth. Thank God this jerk was not from the USA >
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Umm to all of you saying he was going for the ball, why didn't he just say that then? Instead he said "I wanted to give him a good reason to flop". Sounds to me he was pissed for some reason and chose to go the unsportsman route which today is, unfortunatley, what too many spoiled rich athletes do. Its time to say FU to these a-holes and get interested in something other than sports...try science or art for example. In the times of the Roman Empire the reason the Empire was able to continue their conquests and create havoc on otherwise peaceful cultures without reproach from their own citizens was by giving them sport(Gladiators) and free cake at the events. The people kept their bellies full and were entertained...sound familiar????
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Batum, stay home in France, the USA does not need you. You are a typical French player, I guess.
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Whats a typical "French player"? A player like Tony Parker? Like Noah?
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Let me begin by saying that Batum should have been disqualified, PERIOD, for trying to take matters into his own hands since the officials evidently weren't policing the game to his satisfaction. That said, let's not embellish things. The video clearly shows that Batum hit Juan Navarro ABOVE his pelvic bone on the right side of his lower stomach--NOT in the testicles, as your choice of words (groin) implies. TRUST ME, if Juan (or any male) had taken a blow with that kind of force below the border he not only would have dropped to the floor like an anvil, he would have STAYED down like he was hit by Sonny Liston in his athletic prime...
Clifford
Santa Monica -
I just can't believe that the NBA will allow a player like him . Being called "a NBA player" is a sacred privilege that Batum definitely does not deserve. It will be a blackeye to the NBA allowing him to be a called a NBA sportsman.
