May
16
ANOTHER REASON TO HATE THE SPURS!
Filed Under Loose Balls
NBA’s Suspension of Suns’ Stoudemire and Diaw for Game Five is Ridiculous!
Remember when the San Antonio Spurs were an admirable team with The Admiral David Robinson all those years. Before the Spurs cracked through in 1999 and won the championship against the New York Knicks, Robinson and San Antonio were considered a soft team. That can’t be said about the Spurs nowadays as the team has transformed into a bunch of goons, with Bruce Bowen, Robert Horry, Manu Ginobli and even Tim Duncan leading the way.
While the Spurs were coughing up a chance to take a commanding 3-1 lead against the favored and classier Phoenix Suns on Monday night, Horry decided to show that if the Spurs weren’t going to beat Phoenix in Game Four, they were at least going to beat them. Horry’s body-shot of Steve Nash into the scorer’s table at the end of the game was uncalled for, but what else would you expect from the appropriately named Big Shot Bob. While he has been known for his game-winning shooting heroics throughout his playoff career, Horry can hardly be considered a clean player.
• Remember when Horry, while a member of the Lakers, karate-chopped David Robinson in the family jewels at the end of Game One of the 2003 second-round series between the Spurs and Los Angeles.
• Remember when Horry practically got himself traded out of Phoenix when throwing a towel at Head Coach Danny Ainge’s face in the mid-nineties. OK. Maybe Horry can’t be blamed too much for that act as Ainge is annoying, a whiner and a terrible General Manager. Oh Lord! Please don’t let Boston get the first (Greg Oden) or second pick (Kevin Durant) in this year’s draft.
Naturally, Horry’s despicable act at the end of Game Four drew the ire of the Suns’ bench as Amare Stoudemire and Boris Diaw came off the bench for a few seconds before being restrained or realizing what they had done. The NBA has a smart rule that applies an automatic one-game suspension for any player who comes off the bench during an altercation in the game. This is to prevent a player to come out of nowhere and cold-cock someone in the back of the head.
Consequently, Stoudemire and Diaw have been suspended for the crucial Game Five in Phoenix. Horry has been hit with a two-game suspension, a tradeoff that the Spurs will certainly take considering who Phoenix has lost.
The NBA needs to really reevaluate this rule in situations like this. What Stoudemire and Diaw did was technically wrong, and yet it was a human reaction, especially considering that Horry was taking a shot at the team’s heart and soul, Nash. Even the often-restrained Nash took exception to the Horry cheap shot and went after the veteran. What Stoudemire and Diaw did was no different to what Charles Oakley used to do for Michael Jordan when he was physically assaulted at the rim by Detroit Pistons like Rick Mahorn or Bill Laimbeer.
I mean the NBA is a superstar league, and shouldn’t David Stern protect one of the league’s top five players in Nash. I guess the league chooses to protect who they want and in this series it’s been the Spurs. After Stoudemire called Bowen a cheap shot artist following Game Two, the talented Suns center was mired in foul trouble in Game Three after several questionable foul calls at the rim. And now Stoudemire must watch Game Five as his team tries to defend Duncan.
It seems unjust that Horry was able to goad Phoenix like that at the end of Game Four. Whether intentional or unintentional, Horry’s actions should not be able to affect the series as it has. Charles Barkley made a good point on TNT that these suspensions will affect Phoenix throughout the rest of the series in terms of the amount of minutes that will have to be expended by Nash, Shawn Marion and others in Game Five. Hopefully, San Antonio will not win Game Five and advance to the Western Conference Finals and potentially the NBA Finals.
While the Spurs were once a favorite team of mine with classy players like Robinson, Sean Elliot and Avery Johnson, the Spurs’ teams of the last couple of years have become one of my least favorite. While one of the most fundamentally skilled big men to ever play the game, Duncan obviously hasn’t carried any of the class that Robinson displayed in his career. Duncan often whines to the officials, and lacks the leadership to put dirt bag players like Bowen in place and get the Spurs to play the right way.
As for Bowen, he wouldn’t have survived in the NBA 15 years ago. His tactics would have been quickly noticed and reprimanded by legitimate tough guys like the Laimbeers or Mahorns of the league, who would have put a fist to his face in a heartbeat (whether right or wrong, that’s how the league used to be). Just in Game Three, Bowen swung his knee into Nash’s groin and sent the All-Star point guard to the ground. Bowen later called the incident accidental and unintentional.
And then there’s Ginobli. While exciting in his first year in the league, Ginobli was quickly exalted an NBA superstar. Consequently, he became a huge flopper when getting into the lane. Just the other day in Game Three, Ginobli drove into the lane and used his forearms to clear the way. Marion accidentally swiped Ginobli across the face and left him with a nasty yet deserved (for all the times that he’s flopped in the lane throughout his career) blood blister under his eye .
And last but not least, there’s Tony Parker. While certainly a quick player, Parker is overrated. He still follows big games in the playoffs with less-than-stellar ones. His play in the clinching games of the 2003 and 2005 NBA Finals is a prime example of this. Remember how Speedy Claxton helped the Spurs knock out the Nets in 2003 while an ineffective Parker sat on the bench. Or how Ginobli and Brent Barry finished out Game Seven against the Pistons two years ago.
While Parker is talented and has the starlet fiancée and French accent, he also is not what people make him out to be as a basketball player. In other words, he’s a perfect representation of the outdated, clean-cut image of the Spurs, which couldn’t be further from the truth after Horry’s actions!
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[…] Antonio may not had advanced to the NBA Finals to play this horrible Cavs team had it not been for Horry’s body shot of Phoenix Suns’ star point guard Steve Nash at the end of Game Four of the second round series between the […]