It turns out Amare Stoudemire was right -- the Spurs are dirty. The way Robert Horry body checked Steve Nash at the end of the last Spurs-Suns game was outrageous. It was one of the most obvious dirty plays I've seen in the NBA. They should change Horry's nickname from "Big Shot Bob" to "Cheap Shot Bob" for that hit.
Dirty teams usually have the same modus operandi -- have one of your lesser players foul one of the other team's better players, really hard. Hope he, or other stars on the opposition team, retaliate and get thrown out. In this case, Nash didn't strike back (he was on the ground after being slammed to the floor), but Stoudemire and Diaw looked like they might be approaching the court. If you step on to the court off the bench during a fight, it's supposed to be an automatic suspension.
If Horry, Stoudemire and Diaw all get suspended for the next game, the Spurs will have a party in San Antonio to celebrate. Their dirty tricks will have worked and they will likely win the series without earning it. It will be a gross miscarriage of justice.
Stoudemire and Diaw were far from the action and never came close to getting involved in the fight. Horry purposely started it, and later threw another elbow. There's no question that Horry should be suspended, not just for the next game but for the rest of the series.
Suspending Stoudemire even for one game would do serious damage to the Suns and get San Antonio exactly what they want. The NBA has a tough case on their hands. In the legal world, they say hard cases make bad law, exactly because of circumstances like this. The NBA has to find a way to stop rewarding dirty plays by suspending the other team's players for reacting to the cheap shot.
The league's zero tolerance policy is becoming counterproductive because it's encouraging cheap shots. If flagrant fouls are punished just as much, or as little, as a small infraction in response, it provides an incentive to foul hard and hope the other team's stars react. The punishment must fit the crime, otherwise there is a greater incentive to commit bigger crimes.
I used to have a lot of respect for San Antonio. I think Tim Duncan has been a classy player throughout his career (but his constant surprise at every foul call against him is driving everyone nuts, stop the wide eyed look already). I think Gregg Popovich has been an excellent coach. But when you have this many cheap shots from one team and the coach doesn't do anything about it, you begin to wonder if there is a permissive attitude about it from the coaching staff. Dirty teams don't get to be dirty by accident. It's usually allowed and quietly encouraged. The Spurs are one more cheap shot away from soiling their legacy by proving their detractors right.
I am an enormous believer in doing whatever it takes to win. But it has to be within the rules. If you have to step outside of the rules, play dirty or try to hurt the other players to win, then there is no point to winning at all. You don't prove anything that way, except the very opposite of what you were trying to show. You prove yourself to be a loser, rather than a winner.
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Don't Let "Cheap Shot Bob" Get His Way
Posted May 15th 2007 4:33AM by Cenk Uygur
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Mo Rocca appears on a bunch of shows, including CBS News Sunday Morning (with the indescribably wonderful Charles Osgood), The Tonight Show on NBC, and NPR's Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! He's a sometime judge on Iron Chef and was featured on Telemundo's Amore Descarado. Last year he starred on Broadway in the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. His expose "All the President's Pets" was published by Crown in 2004.
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Reader Comments ( Page 1 of 1)
1. The San Antonio Franchise should be fined for concocting and/or encouraging this strategy. The only player that should be suspended is the "hit man" that San Antonio management anointed to carry out this nefarious scheme.
Bob Rogan at 11:31AM on May 15th 2007
2. I think that it is funny how many other teams play hard or "dirty" as you would say but because San Antonio are so widely known and disliked because of them being an amazing team everyone feels like they should complain about them. And by the way, if you have not read the rule already, here it is:
During an altercation, all players not participating in the game must remain in the immediate vicinity of their bench. Violators will be suspended, without pay, for a minimum of one game and fined up to $35,000. The suspensions will commence prior to the start of their next game.
The suns deserve to special treatment because of the foul, because in that case, Ginobli could have whined and complained and talked badly about the suns for getting a black eye during game 3. But no, the Spurs ARE classy, everyone just dislikes them because they are amazing at what they do, winning championships.
GO SPURS
Stefanie at 1:30PM on May 15th 2007
3. "You prove yourself to be a loser, rather than a winner."
Your advice is great, I applied it to your one-sided post. Really, you are asking that Horry be suspended for the series and nothing be done to the Suns. Ridiculous! The coaches should have done more on the Suns' bench to keep their guys in check. Besides, don't the players know the rules?
As a fair person, I think they should be fined, but that's a problem in itself. Does a fine really affect the players as it should? I doubt it since the fine is nothing compared to the money they make for playing.
And as for the "Amare Stoudemire" quote being right on about the Spurs...come on, it's the playoffs. Did you not see Thomas holding Duncan's jersey? Did you not see that reach in on Ginobili? Again, it's the playoffs. Horry is the exception here, that was lame on his part.
where is the reasoning? at 5:21PM on May 15th 2007
4. I agree with you that the zero tolerance policy has made things worse, and Horry should have been suspended. I think that one of the underlying problems is that by cracking down on hard fouls and the like it has removed a self-policing element, allowing these things to fester and spiral out of control.
tyduffy at 9:03PM on May 15th 2007
5. Come on die hard Spurs fans! You have to admit that your team is not really all that clean. There's a big difference between playing hard and playing dirty, and the Spurs have crossed the line this time.
I used to have respect for the Suprs, but I lost all of it in this series. That's not the right way to win.
The dirty tactics have been escalating in each game. And I agree, this type of play has to be "approved and encouraged" by the coaching staff. It also seems to be approved by the NBA, which has been letting the Spurs "get away with it" in the previous games. Is it really a surprise that it escalated?
Robert Horry will likely be the "hero" once again by helping his team win the championship...
I thought this was the NBA, not the WWF!
Rodger at 9:50PM on May 15th 2007