Killian Hayes vs. Moe Wagner

On Wednesday night, the Detroit Pistons and Orlando Magic got into a benches clearing brawl. Moe Wagner shoved Killian Hayes into the Pistons bench and well, uh, let’s see what Killian Hayes did to Moe Wagner:

This scene at the Magic-Pistons game 😳

Moe Wagner, Killian Hayes and Hamidou Diallo were all ejected after this altercation.pic.twitter.com/gGiA6BWz3O

— Yahoo Sports (@YahooSports) December 29, 2022

Let’s see how we ended up here.

Killian Hayes

Killian Hayes is a 21-year-old French baller who was selected no. 7 overall by the Detroit Pistons in 2020 from Ratiopharm Ulm—a German ball club whose name is fucking Ratiopharm Ulm. It’s always risky when you draft a young European who has only competed in the Euroleague. The difference between Luka Doncic and Frank Ntilikina is astronomical. Go Mavs.

Shout out to Kevin O’Connor from the Ringer who claimed Hayes was the best player in the 2020 draft and refuses to believe the young man is a bust. Here is what Hayes is doing this season on a Pistons team that lost their star point guard, Cade Cunningham, to a season-ending injury thus opening the floor up for Killian to cook.

25.5 minutes
9.1 points
2.9 rebounds
5.3 assists
38% shooting from the field
32% from 3

Yike. But again, he’s 21 years old and perhaps he can find a groove and/or a new coach to train with in the offseason.

With 33 seconds left in the first half, Killian Hayes and Moe Wagner went for a loose ball. Moe Wagner pulled up short and elected to shove Hayes out of bounds instead of going for the ball. The Pistons bench stood up to chirp at Wagner and Hayes charged up behind him and it was NAP TIME for Moritz.

Moe Wagner

Moritz Wagner is a 25-year-old German basketball player and wait, I think I just found the source of this beef. The French and The Germans have been on opposite sides of pretty much every international conflict.

Killian Hayes wasn’t KOing Wagner because Wagner committed a dirty play or whatever. No no, this goes back to 1870 and the Franco-Prussian War—a 6-month war that resulted in the unification of Germany and their expansion of land, power and influence in Europe. Hayes wasn’t punching Wagner, he blacked out and all he saw was Otto von Bismarck.

Pistons-Magic discipline:

– Killian Hayes: 3-game suspension
– Moe Wagner: 2-game suspension
– Hamidou Diallo: 1-game suspension
– 1-game suspension to eight Magic: Cole Anthony, Mo Bamba, Wendell Carter Jr., RJ Hampton, Gary Harris, Kevon Harris, Franz Wagner, Admiral Schofield

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) December 30, 2022