Frustrated Josh Richardson Ejected for Throwing His Sneaker

LeBron James dropped 51 points on the Heat Sunday night, spoiling the debut of those slick, Miami Vice-themed uniforms and the last game LeBron might play in Miami against Dwyane Wade, who he teamed with to win two championships for the Heat. However, the defender tasked with attempting to slow the LeBron freight train down ran into trouble with his kicks and was eventually tossed for it midway through the fourth quarter.

Fourth-year wing Josh Richardson lost his sneaker while missing a dunk with a little over half of the final frame remaining. Replays showed a defender stepped on his sneaker right before he jumped, which is what caused it to come off. However, his inability to unlace the offending sneaker to get it back on apparently exacerbated his irritation at the no-call, and led to him flinging the offending Nike into the crowd, earning an ejection.

Not that Richardson’s presence mattered much. James was on fire all night, and even Jamal Murray’d a three-pointer inside of 30 seconds to move past the 50-point threshold.

If you’re unfamiliar with Richardson, you’re not alone. But to give you an idea of his game, the Heat were apparently unwilling to part with him during talks to acquire Jimmy Butler. The 6’6″ 200-pound wing is averaging a career-high 20.4 points per game on 44.8 percent shooting from deep to go with 4 rebounds and 3.3 assist per game. That absurd percentage from 3-point range is on 6.6 attempts per game (he’s actually doing slightly worse on 2-point attempts), a staggering figure that will level off, but is worth mentioning more than a fifth of the way into the season.