PHOENIX SUNS
Suns’ Dragan Bender and Kings’ Georgios Papagiannis officially have beef
Apr 11, 2017, 8:37 PM | Updated: 10:20 pm
PAPA G MAD pic.twitter.com/8qzUuUV2XE
— Michael Gallagher (@MikeSGallagher) April 12, 2017
Kanellos Papagiannis was the LaVar Ball before LaVar Ball.
The father of Sacramento Kings rookie Georgios Papagiannis — or at least someone using his name — made headlines last year by trolling Twitter and criticizing scouting reports of several international big men in the draft and proclaiming his son the better player.
One such big man was soon-to-be Phoenix Suns draft pick Dragan Bender, who went fourth overall.
Well, apparently Georgios Papagiannis shares his father’s opinion. He got a little hot in the season finale on Tuesday trying to post up on Bender, and a scuffle ensued.
The Suns and Kings are far from the most entertaining teams in the NBA, especially with Phoenix sitting Devin Booker in the last game of 2016-17.
But their battles in the future will be a thing to watch.
Phoenix traded the No. 13 and No. 28 picks, a future second-round pick and rights to Bogdan Bogdanovic to Sacramento in the 2016 draft to move up and pick Marquese Chriss with the No. 8 selection.
The Kings used the 13th pick to draft Papagiannis in what was considered a reach, then took Skal Labissiere 28th after the former Kentucky forward fell down draft boards.
Labissiere scored a career-high 32 points, including 21 points in the fourth quarter, in the teams’ last meeting.
It appears those two might have a back-and-forth rivalry budding based on their play this year.
“That was the difference, Skal took over,” Suns coach Earl Watson said after the March 15 Suns loss. “It’s OK. He and Marquese can battle for the next 10, 15 years.”
The Bender-Papagiannis matchup, however, had history behind it before the two even stepped foot on an NBA court.
Papagiannis punctuates his profanity with some very sassy yet aggressive head flair pic.twitter.com/kthO0o8t6c
— Fastbreak Breakfast (@fastbreakbreak) April 12, 2017
