If you’ve watched Michigan State’s Tom Izzo coach basketball over the years then you know the 66-year-old coach can sometimes get emotional with his players and sometimes lose any type of self control.
That happened during the tournament in 2019 and it happened again Thursday night during Michigan State’s play-in game against the UCLA Bruins.
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Izzo was furious with Gabe Brown after a defensive breakdown in the final seconds of the first half led to a bucket for UCLA. Izzo grabbed Brown’s arm as they headed to the locker room and then grabbed Brown’s jersey as the junior forward tried to get away from him.
Here’s that moment:
Tom Izzo and Gabe Brown get into it 👀 pic.twitter.com/kWncCN2Pkx
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) March 19, 2021
I don’t know about you but I’d be pretty upset if a coach got physical like that with me. Yell all you want, that’s what coaches do and that’s more than OK. But grab a player like that? Yeah, that’s not great.
Draymond Green, who played for Izzo at Michigan State, defended his former coach:
Typical Michigan State exchange… move on RELAX!
— Draymond Green (@Money23Green) March 19, 2021
I dunno… maybe that type of behavior shouldn’t be typical.
Lots of people are yelling on Twitter about how it’s no big deal and that anyone who sees it differently is soft. But come on, a grown adult acting like that toward one of his players is just not great at all. Grabbing his shirt like that to try to bring pull him back? Come on, Izzo. You have to be better than that.
