Chris Ross insisted that Terrence Jones intentionally hit him in the nose during the third quarter of Game One of the 2019 PBA Commissioner’s Cup Finals between the TNT KaTropa and the San Miguel Beermen, Sunday night.
The 6-foot-1 guard was on the floor at the 1:03-mark after the 6-foot-9 Jones hit him in the face while the latter was trying to maneuver. It sparked a commotion on the court, which officials halted later on.
Jones actually left the scrum and approached Ross to help him get back up, but the latter refused and stood up on his own before giving Jones some words. The American cager was then assessed with an offensive foul.
“I felt like he purposely went after my nose,” said the outspoken Ross after the match, which TNT won, 109-96.
Ross then claimed that Jones had been intentionally hitting people in the face, citing NorthPort’s Mo Tautuaa as an example. There was a report where Tautuaa confirmed that Jones hit him in their May 29 game.
“I know you’ve seen Mo Tautuaa wears a mask now. The same thing happened to him.
“He’s done it to multiple people where he’s literally going for people’s noses. I’m not the first one, Mo has a mask for it, he broke his nose,” he said.
Jones, though, has aired his side regarding the incident with Ross, saying that it wasn’t intentional at all.
“I don’t know. I mean, they called an offensive foul, and I guess he felt I was on him or something.
“I tried to help him up to let him know that that wasn’t intentional, but he didn’t want my help,” the former NBA cager said.
Aside from that elbow, Ross was left fuming that Jones stepped on his leg. Based on a video clip posted by Sports5 on their Facebook page that caught the whole commotion, it happened while Ross was lying on the floor.
“Then he stepped on my leg. They said it was an accident but when it’s an accident… If I step on your toe, right, you’re going to go right off, right? His legs stood there,” said the 34-year-old do-it-all floor general.
For Ross, those things are far from basketball plays. And he’s sending a warning ahead of Game Two.
“Those certain things aren’t basketball plays. If we’re going to play basketball, we’ll play basketball,” declared the 10-year league veteran.
“If you want to play dirty, we’ll play dirty too. We’ll take note of that going to Game Two.”
