Austin Toros mascot loses his head, gets suspended

The Austin Toros (NBA Development League) mascot "Da Bull" lost his head during a recent game, almost cost his team a win. From ESPN.com:

The mascot, known as Da Bull, prematurely ran onto the court and hung from the rim with .4 seconds remaining, apparently to punctuate center Loren Woods' breakaway dunk that gave the Toros a four-point lead over Colorado.

While hanging from the rim ... Da Bull collided with a Colorado player. At the point of contact, the mascot's head, to his horror, fell to the floor.

The Toros were assessed a technical foul. The 14ers' Von Wafer made the free throw, but Rick Rickert missed a 3-pointer that would have tied the score as time expired.

Click here to see a video of the incident from CNN.

The Toros suspended the mascot, and assigned him to 50 hours of community service, according to a team press release:

Da Bull will return to action on Friday, February 2, when the Toros take on the Bakersfield Jam. The Toros will have a replacement mascot for Friday's game against the Arkansas Rimrockers at 7:30.

Community service for Da Bull begins this weekend at the Bastrop Hoopstars basketball clinic on Saturday and Sunday at the Whataburger Youth Basketball clinic from 1-3 at the IH-35 and Wells Branch store.

(via GameOps.com Editor Blog)