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Jeremy Sochan Had Chill Answer for Why Jarred Vanderbilt Stuck a Finger in His Face

Tensions boiled over after the Spurs' victory over the Lakers.

Kyle Koster

Jeremy Sochan and Jarred Vanderbilt had a confrontation after Spurs beat the Lakers.
Jeremy Sochan and Jarred Vanderbilt had a confrontation after Spurs beat the Lakers. / NBA
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Tempers flared after the San Antonio Spurs beat the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday night as Jarred Vanderbilt let Jeremy Sochan know he was fed up in the form of a good old-fashioned finger to the face. That's as wild as things got, though, as De'Aaron Fox and others quickly intervened and prevented the situation from growing into anything you'd see on a Bravo reality series.

Vanderbilt did not speak to reporters after the game. Sochan, on the other hand, was happy to provide further details.

"I must've said something to him during the game, and maybe it wasn't very nice," Sochan said. "He must have taken it in the wrong way and told me to see him after the game. So, I did. And we just had a polite exchange. I was, I think, intact and very joyful and the other person wasn't. Yeah, he just wasn't emotionally stable in that moment. So, it's something he has to work on. It's just life."

To fact-check Sochan's claim that he was intact and joyful, an alternate angle is available. The young Spurs player was smiling through the confab.

Sochan scored six points in 11 minutes of action. Some of the stuff he did does not show up on the stat sheet, like making Luka Doncic smile.

Vanderbilt only scored four points in 19 minutes of play, and took the bait. Then got accused of not being emotionally stable. Tough night.

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Kyle Koster
KYLE KOSTER

Kyle Koster is an assistant managing editor at Sports Illustrated covering the intersection of sports and media. He was formerly the editor in chief of The Big Lead, where he worked from 2011 to '24. Koster also did turns at the Chicago Sun-Times, where he created the Sports Pros(e) blog, and at Woven Digital.

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