NBA Player Chokes Miami's Jimmy Butler During Friday Night Fight!

The New Orleans Pelicans and Miami Heat threw DOWN last night as a fourth quarter melee ended with multiple ejections and even Jimmy Butler getting choked!

Who said the NBA's boring?

It all began to spiral out of control when the Pelicans' Zion Williamson was aggressively fouled by the Heat's Kevin Love. Williamson began walking away after a bit of a confrontation. However, the rest of the players on the floor began scrapping, which would ultimately lead to four being ejected.

"Let's go to the videotape!," as my former mentor Warner Wolf would say.

AN ACTUAL REAL FIGHT FOR ONCE!

In the video above, you can see Naji Marshall run over and push Kevin Love. As soon as Jimmy Butler shows up, however, Naji set his eyes (and his hands) on him before the two begin pushing each other and Naji then grabs Butler's neck! 

(SIDE NOTE: How awful were the two Bally Sports New Orleans announcers, Joel Meyers and Antonio Daniels in the whole thing? I mean, talk about blowing things out of proportion. Calm down - and no, the referees aren't to blame for ‘letting things get out of hand.’ It's the actual opposite; referees call too many fouls and when there's actual physicality, players don't know what to do.)

Anyway, we continue on with the fight.

Here's Naji putting his hands to Butler's neck.

NAJI MARSHALL GRABBED JIMMY BUTLER'S NECK

Naji Marshall immediately begins running away in the typical "I'll be the instigator and have my friends all fight for me," as Butler is immediately met by a couple of  7 footers from the Pelicans to stop him from throwing down on Naji.

But just when you thought the whole skirmish was over, out of nowhere, the Heat's Thomas Bryant began swinging and landing a couple punches on the Pelicans' Jose Alvarado to give us a nice Round 2.

We even came close to another ‘Malice in the Palace’ when Jose Alvarado tried to climb the scorers table and, I assume, launched some sort of WWE top rope attack on Thomas Bryant.

MUST WATCH THE NEXT GAME

SIDE NOTE: Shout out to the fan that apparently threw something and got called out by one of the Pelicans bench players at the 0:52 mark. He was also ejected.

In the end, Miami's Butler and Bryant and the Pelicans' Marshall and Alvarado were all tossed in what is sure to now be an exciting rivalry throughout the rest of the season, as Butler is clearly not over being choked by Naji.

"The next time we play them? Sure [there will be tension] and we'll beat them the next time, too" Butler said after the game. "We're just a better team."

Let's go.