Grayson Allen.
Those are the only two words I have to type for Bulls fans to begin foaming at the month. The Milwaukee Bucks’ wing will now forever be known as the guy who shattered Alex Caruso’s wrist on a dirty flagrant 2 foul. He’ll likely continue to be heavily booed in Chicago for years to come, especially as he’s on the brink of helping his team eliminate the Bulls in the playoffs.
Some of those boos, though, likely would have dissipated with some sort of more formal apology. However, Caruso only stirred the pot further when he told J.J. Redick on the Old Man and the Three Podcast back in March that he never received anything of the sort from Allen.
In case you missed it, here is the exact quote from the episode: โJust a statement of fact, just so weโre accurate with our history here. Iโve never actually had a conversation with him or a text or phone call. So thatโs still kind of up in the air. But the past is the past is what it is. I donโt really expect one.โ
Caruso didn’t sound particularly salty about the two failing to make amends, but Allen has now suggested it wasn’t for a lack of trying.
In a conversation with reporters after the Bucks’ Game 4 win – where Allen dropped 27 points behind 6-7 shooting from downtown – he said he did try to get ahold of Caruso more than once:
โI saw on JJโs podcast he said I didnโt reach out, which I did try,” Allen said. “I tried two different ways, and then when I saw that, I got another number and tried to reach out again. At that point, itโs not about me expecting a reply, itโs about me wanting to let him know. Itโs more of something between me and him. So I donโt expect a reply. I donโt think he would even want to.โ
Hm. Sure.
I guess Caruso’s exact wording was that he never “had a conversation” with Allen, so maybe he did receive the apology and never felt open to starting a dialogue? The other option, of course, would be Allen didn’t truly get through to Caruso until after he did the public appearance on Redick’s podcast. Yet, Allen mentions that he never received a reply, so it’s obvious there isn’t any interest in talking through the beef.
At the end of the day, I don’t think any of this matters all that much anymore. Caruso is right, the past is in the past, and I’m not sure anything Allen says will change how Caruso (or me, for that matter) feels about the play.