How to judge Amare Stoudemire’s judgment
Oh great, it’s rule book time
Everybody saw what happened last night. Once again, a tough decision will be put into the hands of the NBA powers that be. Cub will have the more thorough game recap in a little while, but first here is a quick recap of the events of the end of the fourth quarter that made this situation particularly interesting.
-With the Spurs leading by one, Amare holds his ground as Tim Duncan tries to deliver the big basket once again. Amare makes the shot tough for Tim, and it doesn’t go in.
-Nash pushes it the other way and gets it to Amare with a behind the back pass in traffic for the bucket that gives Phoenix a one point lead. Amare, who blew so many big, close shots in game 1, used those soft hands to hold onto the ball, and the finish was not a given.
-Next possession, Michael Finley misses a shot, Nash finds Amare with a second straight behind the back pass and Amare finishes. If I may get all hyperbolic for the moment, those were the two biggest baskets of his career back to back. In a building where the crowd is yelling “dirty” every time he touches the ball, where Amare had set himself up to be the villain for whining to the media about Bowen and Manu, he made three key plays at the very end to turn the series in Phoenix’s favor.
-The Suns play MORE defense with Raja pressuring Manu into a miss. Robert Horry delivers Steve Nash the forearm smash. Amare and Boris Diaw start to rush onto the floor, but are restrained a few seconds too late as they violate one of the NBA’s dumber rules. Phoenix seals it at the line, though Nash missed some free throws, possibly caused by the wooziness from getting slammed into the boards.
I posted a comment to this effect last night, but if Amare and/or Diaw are suspended, was that the biggest shot of Big Shot Rob’s career? If Tim Duncan goes for 40 and 20 against the Amare-less Suns in game 5 and the Spurs win a championship, is it tainted? Amare might have had a moment of stupidity by walking onto the court, so do you think he deserves his possible suspension? Feel free to comment. I personally would say no, because then what’s stopping role players from taking shots at stars? Should Amare be expected to have the self-restraint to think “Oh hey it’s the biggest game of the year, we got a huge stop and there goes my teammate, my point guard, the two time MVP with the ball. Oh look at that, one of the players on the team I’ve been accusing as dirty who is twice his size, just took a cheap shot at him. Hey I’ll just stand here and watch.”
Hopefully the NBA won’t be so literal and Amare will be allowed to suit up for game 5. The same goes for Diaw, but I’m focusing on Amare cause he went from delivering at both ends of the floor at the key point of the NBA season so far, and moments later he might have cost his team their season because he had a reaction to seeing his teammate get victimized by a cheap shot. Nash may have flopped a little bit, but a shoulder check into the boards is a shoulder check into the boards. It was probably a frustration foul from Robert Horry, and if you want to defend him, add it to the list of Spurs “coincidentally dirty plays.”
Maybe I’m just saying that because I’m blatantly cheering for the Suns? This was a championship team galvanizing type of win. They beat a tougher, more physical team on the road, coming back from down double figures late in the fourth, about to drop into a 3-1 series chasm. They won it at both ends of the floor, with their players having their manhood questioned all week long, and they responded like champions. The refs also gave them many of the calls throughout the game. Nicely done, Stern. I know the Suns have been farther than this in the playoffs, but the feel of the win was one of those special moments that we remember as “the next step” for a champion. Again, the Suns played great defense in crunch time, and Amare the villain of San Antonio, came up with 3 key plays in the final moments, before the Horry check.
Craig Sager’s interview with Nash was priceless. He referenced Big Shot Rob taking a big shot at him, and you could hear Nash deadpan “Ha. Good one.” It was also pretty amazing that this was the night that Shaq would be in the studio with TNT. Is there any other situation where a professional police officer would be asked to analyze a basketball game and the NBA rule book? Shaq had to emphasize that rules are rules and the Suns are guilty. What are the odds that a lawman would be on the set on the one night where the letter of the law was put into question?
This is going to be a long-running open-ended discussion. Have fun with that.
Before all of the Phoenix-San Antonio mayhem took place, Jake and I went to the Nets-Cavs game. He’ll have much more on that later this afternoon some time. Getting there was an adventure in itself. A slow moving adventure featuring a ridiculous amount of traffic. Maybe Jake will choose to detail that, maybe he won’t. I understand either way. Just to pre-emptively defend myself, I’m slightly ashamed of my behavior the day after Mother’s Day. After being honked at one two many times, I may have yelled out “Don’t (profanity) honk at me you grandma (more profanity, more profanity, more profanity)!” We got to the game late, and due to some credential problems didn’t get to our seats until sometime in the second quarter. Jake will have the rest. Not the greatest final possession for the Nets. Their season is pretty much over.
Eagles (starting?) QB Donovan McNabb was at the game. Didn’t see Kevin Kolb anywhere. That line was for Khalid, though its not like I have any comeback if he were to insult my team.
I stayed up later than usual after absorbing much of the post-game to watch Heroes. It was sub-par, yeah I said it!
This story is filed under: Blogs, NBA, The Peoples Champ
On the other hand, the L should suspend Horry one game for the least.
NO ONE, i mean no one wants to see a rematch.
The NBA does some dumb stuff, but could you imagine suspending Amare and Diaw, and not Horry? Really, which person did the worse thing? It’s so ludicrous do think of, that I dont think the NBA could do it. Plus, if they love ratings, and they do, this series is gotta be fetching a ton… no way they want to ruin it
Amare/Diaw should be fined.
The Suns should win.
Key word is ’should’
And because his believably exaggerated flop made Horry’s shiver look even worse than it was, Steve Nash will earn a contract with his beloved Tottenham Hotspurs. I expect to see him starring as Spurs’ holding midfielder come August.
Also, if this was GS and Baron Davis was checked like that, best believe Whoooo would be busting gats cross-sideways.
If Nash signs with Spurs I hope Barca signs Zokora.
bahahaha
Spurs still have to overcome that garbage - even with Javie reffing the game. “The refs also gave them many of the calls throughout the game. Nicely done, Stern.” - I am hoping by them - you meant the Suns.
Section 7 C.states:
c. During an altercation, all players not participating in the game must remain in the immediate vicinity of their bench. No offense to Shaq, but the law is not as cut and dry as “a rule is a rule”. I suppose the issues at hand are: 1. whether Amare was sufficiently close to the bench to be in “the vicinity” (eg. not in the stands throwing haymakers).
And 2. Whether the league considers the exchange to be “an altercation”. I think Stu Jackson has two avenues (irrespective of the somewhat drummed up excuse of Amare going to check in) to make a fair decision. Could he easily agree that the argument and technical fouls didn’t constitute and “altercation”? The answer is yes. I expect Horry to be suspended for 3 games, and for no suspension to be levied against Phoenix. Then again, who knows? It’s sports…not exactly a pantheon of righteousness.
And on some level — I may be crazy with this — I feel it is the job of
fans to think like champions. Be mentally tough. Play through adversity.
Think like a winner, not a whiner. But this game was something. I was rooting for Phoenix — in the name of a
tied series and exciting play deep into the playoffs — and through
Phoenix’s comeback I was at first pleasantly surprised as a handful of 50/50
calls went the Suns’ way. But it just kept going. San Antonio couldn’t catch
a break. Nash drew a charge on Duncan when he was well inside the no-charge
line, Raja Bell’s flop drew paydirt … By the time Leandro Barbosa barreled
into Tony Parker and Parker got called for the foul, I started to feel sort
of cheap. I wanted Phoenix to make the big comeback, but not like that. I hate to fuel the whiners and conspiracy theorists out there. And it’s
premature to say this was really called the Suns’ way. It felt like that
from my seat, watching it once in real time. I would love for an intelligent, non-partial person with a good DVR to break
down all the questionable calls and give us a report. From watching it in
real time, I feel the referees were a big part of this victory. I’d love to
proven wrong. Of course, plenty more happened. There were great plays by both teams
(especially Steve Nash’s left-handed behind-the-back bounce pass in the
lane). There may be suspensions. We’ll talk it all out in the days to come. UPDATE: Adam Hoff at WhatIfSports, who admits he has never been a San
Antonio fan at all, and recently examined the calls in Game 2 in this series
and found that San Antonio was getting the benefit of the doubt, stayed up
late examining every possession of the fourth quarter of Game 4. San Antonio started the quarter up eight, so it’s a meaningful section of
the game. You should read Hoff’s description of every play. He found that of
all the foul calls that might have been considered “bad” in the fourth
quarter, the the Suns were the beneficiaries of five, and the Spurs were the
beneficiaries of none. By his estimation adding in no-calls and violations
makes the disparity even greater. Here’s Hoff’s conclusion: In real time it definitely seemed that Phoenix was getting the majority of
the close and/or dubious calls and no-calls and that bore itself out in the
“research.” There were a lot of reasons the Suns came back to win (Amare
bouncing back, Nash being a straight pimp, and Brent Barry and Michael
Finley taking a couple of bad fadeaways), but there is no denying that the
calls were a HUGE factor. And beyond the +5 for Phoenix, there were probably
a half dozen other calls that were really close and/or not typically called
in the fourth quarter of a playoff game (or even during the first quarter of
an exhibition game). So the Spurs definitely wore it from the zebras. It
felt like an alternate universe, to be honest. And in San Antonio! What a
strange night.
Is that true. do you know where there is a clip showing that.
BUT when Nash takes a hard foul from Horry, STAT and DIAW get off the bench wanting to fight. SUSPENDED! it’s thier mistake, young players make stupid mistakes, and STAT is known for that. They should of controlled themselves, just like the spurs did when they get hit with hard fouls. Rules are Rules, the rule was put there to prevent big fights, and this could have easily escalted into one. on the other hand celebration is different they are not trying to fight, and Personally I have never seen anyone who celebrates by running all the way to the check-in table. this is a no brainer, stop being a spur-hater cuz STAT and DIAW made a stupid mistake they should have never made. STAT and DIAW should be suspended. GO SPURS GO. say it loud people.
http://www.aolsportsblog.com/2007/05/15/tim-duncan-left-the-bench-too-will-he-be-suspended/
Suspension?
I don’t happen to agree with my friend and former boss on this — I think there should be some leeway in the rules, where as long as guys on the bench don’t actually get involved in the action, they should just catch a warning or fine or something — but Russ’ point is nonetheless valid. This sh*t isn’t a streetfight, Ray, let alone streetball; it’s a bunch of multimillionaires in what is essentially the entertainment industry playing a little boys’ game in front of a paying public. We all love this game and take is as seriously as we need to, but following your thought to its logical conclusion, these situations should justifiably end in hockey brawls. Which, given the physical nature of hardwood floors and guys who aren’t wearing helments and pads, seems like a pretty bad idea. I hope that makes sense, and if it doesn’t, I expect you’ll be calling me “Ryanny” and accusing me of trafficking in baked goods as well. So be it.
2. look at the bs the spurs pull like knees the the groin and kicking legs out trying to ruin amare’s knees
3. suns whine? tim duncan should be tossed out of every game for complaining
4. the spurs are the biggest whiners in the nba, everyone knows it
5. also the dirtiest team in the nba, and someone finally called them out on it
6. tim duncan looks like he just came out of his mothers womb
7. if any spurs player wants to brawl with amare…go for it and see what happens when a young stud kicks the %^#$ out of old girls
8. SA is just bitter because their city smells and wished they had chicks like the PHX
9. tim duncan needs a diaper and finally… 10. bruce bowen, please dont knee me in the groin like a cheap shot little girl
1
http://www.aolsportsblog.com/2007/05/15/tim-duncan-left-the-bench-too-will-he-be-suspended/
if amare and diaw are suspended duncan must also be…he clearly left the bench area