There are people with chill, and then there are people like George Papas.
The Monmouth guard defied typical end-of-game sportsmanship Friday night in the final seconds of his team’s 112-57 loss to No. 5 Kansas. With Jayhawks guard Tristan Enaruna dribbling out the clock just in front of midcourt (again, up by 55 points), Papas snuck in from behind, stole the ball and raced to the other end for a dunk. Not only that, but the New Jersey native actually had the gall to talk to trash to Enaruna, to the Kansas fans and to the official, who issued Papas a technical foul.
Just some all-around weird stuff.
Take a look:
This is one way to end a blowout 😳
While trailing by 55 with 15 secs left, Monmouth’s George Papas stole the ball as Kansas was dribbling out the clock, dunked it and got a tech. pic.twitter.com/o43LZsANbi
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) November 16, 2019
Monmouth head coach King Rice (amazing name) was not impressed.
“I’m a super, super, super competitive guy, and we lost our cool a little bit here at the end of the game,” Rice said, via 247Sports. “We’re down by 100 points and then we dunk and then we bark at the kid. That’s uncalled for,” Rice said after the game. “You get beat by a better team, you shake their hand and you walk off the court and you take in the experience.”
Kansas coach Bill Self had a different take.
“I’m actually glad it happened because we’ve been on Tristan the whole time about being casual, and that’s an example of what happens when you’re being casual,” Self said. “That didn’t even register as a bad play in my book. No big deal.”
There are arguments for and against Papas showing poor sportsmanship with his behavior. What’s indisputable, however, is that it was just a strange thing to do.
