Danilo Gallinari's tenure with the Los Angeles Clippers is off to an inauspicious start.
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Clippers forward broke his hand punching an opposing player one month after signing a $65 million contract
Danilo Gallinari is off to a clumsy start with his new organization.
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The forward averaged 18.2 points a game for the Denver Nuggets last season, helping to bring them within one win of a playoff spot. The Clippers rewarded Gallinari with a three-year contract worth $65 million, with a plan to use him as a secondary scorer behind superstar Blake Griffin.
But less than a month after the sign-and-trade was completed, Gallinari is in the news for the wrong reasons. Representing his native Italy in an overseas exhibition, the 28-year-old punched his Dutch opponent Jito Kok in the face, breaking a bone in his own right hand.
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Gallinari was taken to the hospital after the incident, though no surgery will be necessary, according to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski. He will need to rest his right thumb for a month but is expected to be ready for the Clippers' training camp in September.
Kok, a Dutch 23-year-old who plays for the club Rapla KK in Estonia, responded to the incident. Using the username Joopooj and providing a photo in hopes of verifying his identity, he commented on a video of the scuffle on Reddit.
"That's me getting hit right there," he wrote. "By the way there was no build up either, I do think I hit him on that box out tho. He wasn't too happy with that."
This isn't the first time the Clippers have been blindsided by an injury after one of their prominent players decided to take a swing at someone. Griffin was sidelined for more than a month in 2016 after an altercation with one of the team's equipment managers.
Gallinari has not played in more than 63 games in a season in the past four years.
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