Spitting Incident Nearly Led to Brawl Between Louisville, Kentucky Alumni Teams

Patrick Andres | Jul 30, 2024

The Ville's Chinanu Onuaku (32) shoots his foul shots during their game against UKnighted on Saturday, July 20, 2024 in Louisville, Ky. at Freedom Hall during the first round of The Basketball Tournament. / Clare Grant/Courier Journal / USA TODAY

For most sports fans, The Basketball Tournament is an inoffensive, nostalgia-friendly piece of summer television inventory for ESPN.

For fans of Louisville and Kentucky, the tournament is a chance to enact another chapter of their eternal psychodrama.

On Monday, a quarterfinal matchup between The Ville (a Cardinals alumni team) and La Familia (a Wildcats alumni team) nearly devolved into a brawl after a postgame altercation.

In video captured by WLEX-TV in Lexington, Ky., The Ville forward Chinanu Onuaku objected after the game to La Familia forward Nate Sestina making "L's down" gestures to mock Louisville.

Onuaku punctuated his plea by spitting at Sestina, and security wound up separating the two teams.

The spit that started it all... https://t.co/XQpCqvEpxp pic.twitter.com/3HgF0yYxgw

— Kinsey Lee (@kinseyleetv) July 30, 2024

La Familia won the game, 70-61, before a massive crowd of 13,506 in Louisville to advance to the tournament semifinals.

Onuaku played for the Cardinals from 2015 to '16, making the ACC's All-Defense team in the latter season. Sestina, who spent four years at Bucknell, played for Kentucky in 2020.