'Can’t be out here committing loose ball fouls,' Charles Barkley on Donovan Mitchell scrum

There’s no delicate way to deal with what happened to Cavs guard Donovan Mitchell Thursday night against the Memphis Grizzlies at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.

Any guy will tell you the one place you never hit the male species is in the errr…umm…family jewels. The Grizzlies Dillon Brooks has to know that. Taking a direct hit there will immediately send guys into a blinding rage. That pain rules your every action until it subsides. There is no reasoning with a person whose endured it and there likely is no safe haven for the perpetrator of such an action.

In other words, no one watching that should be surprised Mitchell reacted as he did – tossing a ball at Brooks’ head and throwing him to the floor.

TNT color analyst Reggie Miller apparently didn’t get that memo.

“It’s hard to know intent right there,” Miller said in the immediate aftermath. “It’s not our job, but that’s what started it all.”

Miller got dragged just a wee bit on Twitter for those comments.

Say what? Yeah, I hate to resort to cliché when making this statement, but Stevie Wonder could have seen intent there.

“It was a cheap shot,” Cavs coach J.B. Bickerstaff said, “in multiple ways. You roll a guy’s ankle then obviously what was next out of there, a guy should have the right to stand up for himself.”

Brooks received a flagrant-2 (that will cost him an insignificant sum of cash given his pay) and both players were ejected from the game.

TNT's "Inside the NBA" crew mostly agreed that it was a cheap shot.

“They both had to go,” TNT’s “Inside the NBA’s” Charles Barkley said. “You can’t be out here committing loose ball fouls.”

Barkley was even more adamant when colleague Kenny Smith equivocated somewhat.

“That was just a dirty play. I like the kid’s toughness, but you can’t go around punching people. C’mon, man. That was a cheap shot. Period," he said.

It sounds as if Mitchell won’t have to worry about discipline from his coach. It’s a common sense perspective that should only enhance Bickerstaff’s standing in the locker room.

“Sometimes people mistake our kindness for weakness. We don’t have those guys that start [expletive], but we’ve got guys who don’t run from [expletive]. You have to in this league."

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Charles Barkley sees Donovan Mitchell incident for cheap shot it was