The Fox Sports commentary team covering an Australian Boomers basketball game have been left in a state of shock after an all-in brawl played out live on air.
Matt Russell and Aussie basketball legend Shane Heal were calling the game between the Boomers and the Philippines in Bulacan last night, when a scuffle between two players from the opposing teams led to punches, kicks and chairs being thrown as the fight escalated.
Both Russell and Heal were in disbelief as the wild scenes involving players, officials and fans played out in front of the TV cameras.
“This has gone wild in the Philippines… out of control in the Philippines,” Russell said.
“I’ve never seen anything like this in all my years covering professional sport involving Australian teams.”
Russell and Heal described as much as they could see of the melee to viewers, noting that Aussie players Nathan Sobey and Chris Goulding had been assaulted.
“Are you kidding me?” Heal said.
“We couldn’t get a camera angle, but there must have been 15 or 20 Filipino players around Nathan Sobey and Chris Goulding.
“This is disgraceful.”
Heal followed up his on-air reaction with a post on Twitter describing how he and Russell were left in a state of disbelief.
We just put our headphones down and looked at each other and said…..WTF just happened @MattRussellFOX @FOXSportsAUS #Disgraceful
— Shane Heal (@ShaneHeal) July 2, 2018
The Boomers were leading the Philippines 79-48 with just over four minutes remaining in the third quarter before the brawl began, which eventually saw at least 13 players ejected and the game abandoned.
