Footy great Brendan Fevola reveals he came incredibly close to getting into wild brawl while he was out with his daughters

Footy legend Brendan Fevola was so close to the wild NBL brawl that rocked John Cain Arena in Melbourne on Sunday that he was concerned he might have to start throwing some punches himself.

Tensions erupted into a physical altercation involving players and a courtside fan during Melbourne United’s 113-93 win over the Adelaide 36ers. 

The incident began when Montrezl Harrell, a 36ers player and former NBA Sixth Man of the Year, received an offensive foul and kicked at opposing centre Rob Loe while on the floor. 

A scuffle broke out, during which Harrell took a swing at United point guard Shea Ili. 

The situation escalated when words were exchanged between 36ers players and fans, and a fan appeared to shove 36ers guard Dejan Vasiljevic. 

Harrell, Ili and the fan were ejected, with reports indicating four spectators were ultimately removed. 

The altercation also allegedly involved the 36ers GM of basketball Matt Weston and guard Kendric Davis being pushed by a fan, with the incident currently under investigation by the NBL. 

Former Carlton and Brisbane Lions AFL star Fevola is no stranger to John Cain Arena and was once again attending a United home game with his daughters.

Fevola was sitting just a couple of rows back from the brawl and filmed it all, posting it to his Instagram account. 

Speaking on The Fox’s Fifi, Fev & Nick on Monday, he joked that he almost sledged former NBA star Harrell himself before it all escalated.

‘They have Montrezl Harrell, ex-NBA star. He’s a bit of an “I’m a big dog” style. It was a bit heated for a good quarter-and-a-half,’ he said.

‘I said to my girls, “I’m going to get into this bloke”, and Lulu [Fevola’s daughter] said please don’t, Dad, because he looks so angry.’

Fevola also joked that there was more action at John Cain Arena than there was at Arlington Arena in Texas for the Jake Paul versus Mike Tyson fight.

‘At the start of the fourth quarter, there’s a big foul, and the players punch on. It was a scuffle, and he [Harrell] punched one of our [Melbourne United] players, Shea Ili, and it was on,’ he said.

‘It was on more than the Mike Tyson fight [against] Jake Paul. So, they depart to their benches while the ref overlooks the footage, and obviously, they will get ejected. They will get kicked out of the game because they punched on.

‘I’m thinking, “He’s going to go nuts here”. And then he’s looking at a video screen to see if he’s going to be ejected, they got him [ejected], and then the supporters next to the coaches’ box started chirping, and then they got up, and it was on: fans versus players.’

‘My girls were like, “Aren’t you glad now, Dad, that you didn’t chirp him because that would have been you in the fight”. I hope I wouldn’t have, but you never know.’

On social media, Harrell blamed the incident on the fan’s attempt to be tough.

‘But I’m the bad guy right I literally try calm down but then mf want try the tuff [two poo emojis]. so now I’m riding for my team sorry not sorry [three shrug emojis],’ he tweeted.

The fan told Harrell, ‘That’s why you’re not in the NBA, you’ve got a f***ing s*** attitude,’ News Corp reported. 

36ers coach Mike Wells only caught the aftermath of both the on-court incident and the fan involvement as he was shuffling between both tense situations.

‘I’ve been in the NBA for a long time, I’ve seen a lot of different fights, but when people are right in the front row, they cannot do that,’ he said.

‘They can pay their money, they can cheer, they can yell, but as soon as they start putting their hands on people, now it’s a different game.’

United coach Dean Vickerman was content that his players’ intentions were largely to simmer the initial scuffle that broke out on court.

Vickerman was disappointed to see the altercation between a fan and the 36ers bench.

‘It’s something you never want to see, right,’ Vickerman said.

‘Fans are there to view the game and support the game.’