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UPDATE: Welcome TrueHoopers. Sorry for the downtime. Please resume your regulary scheduled reading.
UPDATE2: Dirk’s been suspended for 1 game for his “accidental” takedown of Kirilenko.
Aahhh, the NBA. One of the greatest PR machines of our time. Here’s the classic positive-spin description of their picture of the night,
Dirk Nowitzki accidental[l]y crashes into Andrei Kirilenko on Monday.
They must not have attended any driver safety courses lately because they’re now called collisions. There are no accidents. And why was it called a flagrant one if it was an accident? I should find the Malice in the Palace photo. It would read,
Ron Artest and a fan have a disagreement concerning Artest’s beverage preferences.
I thought maybe I was looking too much into this whole thing, but after reading about Dirk’s “accident” with Fisher the night before, and after watching the video 100 times, here’s my problem with it being an accident. A hard foul is one thing. Even grabbing around the neck and head might be an accident. But when Dirk continues his downward motion of his arm to throw AK to the ground, it’s not an accident.
But both Deron and the Jazz got some love on the NBA daily roundup. Maybe it’s because they were part of only three games that night and one of the other games was NOLA/NYK and the other involved the Clippers.
Deron’s 14 assists in the first half was one off the team record by Raul Lopez. Kidding. He finished with 20. If he has another couple games with 14+, he could get a player of the week award.
Speaking of great point guards, do you realize that Stockton is eligible for HOF enshrinement next year? We’ll find out in a month whether or not Adrian Dantley finally gets the call.
Other Dirk/AK fallout:
Other links:
- More Utah/Dallas recap
- Williams/Paul
- Don’t you wish your girl was flexible like me?
- Any move on the Jazz trade front this summer? (end of article)
- Giricek is back in the West.
- Kyle Korver hitting the mainstream on Digg
It was a hard flagrant foul. If one of the Jazz boys did this, I’d expect the same reprocussions. I just love how nothing happens, because it’s the Jazz. The refs just HATE the whole franchise. It’s really obvious.
“Maybe some WW2 bad blood from Jerk?”
That’s just tacky.
You’re probably right. I was just looking for a Russia/Germany connection. Pretty lame actually. I’ve removed it. Thanks for the feedback.
Maybe you should have left it in, there are stories of Germans still getting treated like sh*t when they travel to other parts of Western Europe. And if you talk to any European long enough, they’ll start going off on various other nationalities like a hillbilly.
Well, it’s in the comments. I’ll probably leave it at that. Maybe there was a FIBA Europe reference in there somewhere.
When you jump up and start coming down off-balance, it’s a natural reaction to reach out and grab whatever’s closest to you and use it to steady yourself. Couple that with the concept in basketball of fouling another player to prevent an easy basket, and you’ve got a recipe for disaster. Honestly, I think Dirk should have come to the realization that he was going to hurt the other player about 1.5 seconds before he reached the event-horizon of his takedown, but that doesn’t change the fact that his original intention probably was not to slam kirilenko to the floor as violently as he did. Dirk’s not malicious. He’s a god damned klutz who happens to be very competitive.
I could only hope we could poke a little fun at the internationals now and again, most of them take it in stride and yes an ancient pang for them as well.
Dirt, dirt dirt dirt!!!!
I had to quit watching the clip as it only makes me more angry at dirt. He was out of the play and very intentionally drug AK all the way to the floor! Too bad the reffs on the floor had no guts to make the correct call at the time of infraction. The league office sure felt there was something beyond accidental about it.
So dirt cleans ditches tonight!
I’ve watched him rather carefully this season, as much as I can with is not too much. Figured he was one tough cookie, which he is, but he has had a couple the last few games that go beyond being tough to being dirty, reckless, or down right intentional acts of potential career ending injuries.
One comment about it I read suggest to be benched till the injured player comes back on line. Aside from all the obvious negatives, ie: henchmen, ultimate fall guys and such. Might be a pretty good idea.
Laters
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