Shaun Livingston Swings His Arm Into Dirk Nowitzki's Junk

Hmmm. Shaun Livingston is not someone you typically associate with goonish behavior, but here’s Livingston taking a swing at Dirk Nowitzki’s brat and two veg during the Mavs-Warriors game Saturday night.

Dirk seems legitimately shocked at the action, and Livingston seems desperate to explain how his arm could’ve ended up in that area. After the game, Nowitzki told reporters he would give Livingston the “benefit of the doubt” because the Warriors guard has never been considered a dirty player.

Dallas owner Mark Cuban wasn’t buying Livingston’s innocence plea, and he had a conversation with both Livingston and Golden State coach Steve Kerr after the game about the incident. Here’s Cuban’s version of events, via Inside Bay Area:

Cuban said what he saw was wrong.

“Look, it was no confrontation,” Cuban said, adding he would not ask for Livingston to be suspended. “Don’t make it seem like one. It was just a friendly conversation, and I was curious because it’s just wrong. It’s just wrong.

“It’s not like I’m mad, right? They’re a good organization, and I would think that’s just not the way you do things.”

Cuban said he asked Kerr if he was going to address the incident with Livingston. Kerr said Cuban appeared upset and replied that he did not see the replay of the flagrant foul being committed. Livingston also happened to walk by, according to Kerr, who said the player was “very apologetic.”

Livingston has been pretty widely loved after his long comeback from an extremely gruesome knee injury suffered in 2007. Of course, Livingston’s entire saga could have been a ploy, building up years of good will for this one moment where he really wanted to unleash into another man’s privates.

It also seems pretty hard to explain away what looks like a rather blatant nut-shot, though.