i felt like puking. I knew sp*rs fans were bad but that was a despicable showing last night. and it makes me sick to my stomach that i could be associated with that group of people called human beings

Why should Cheap Shot change his tactics? The league approves of his methods. The Sten Gang has demonstrated by their actions that this is the kind of product they want to succeed. The Kings, Mavs and Suns teams of the recent years have produced a beautiful brand of basketball, but it is clear they will never succeed under the current regime.

Tell me the move was un-intentional. Why, exactly, does he need to drive his arms and forehead into West’s back?

Try again

I saw this last night too and was SHOCKED that JVG and Jackson called this a regular normal play. Clearly Horry leaned forward and hit West in the back.

You can argue that is hard nose basketball and part of the game just like whacking at Kobe’s pinky but don’t tell me its not intentional.

Is anyone surprised that Horry would do something like this? I wasn’t . Everything the Spurs do is intentional.

You stay classy, San Antonio.

I have to say there’s really not much to get upset about here other than the resulting injury. Horry was in position to seal off the lane to West and West jumped backwards into him. Yes, he was leaning forward, but there’s no evidence of malicious intent.

The pick was definitely ill-advised (Horry never had a chance to get set), but I couldn’t really call it dirty. I won’t argue that perhaps he gave West a little something extra, but it was legal enough that I’m willing to say that Horry’s pick and West’s back were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.

they’re only doing what they’ve been allowed to get away with. This isn’t golf.

I blame the refs, Stu Jackson and David Stern. If the refs called the game consistently, and if Stu and Stern forced the issue, we wouldn’t have this problem.

What I see is a situation where every judgment call seems to favor the Spurs, so that when Bowen or Horry are caught on film making blatantly dirty and, more importantly, dangerous actions, nothing is done. When Duncan and Bowen invade the court during a mild altercation, somehow Stu Jackson cynically decides that his discretion is warranted in that situation, but not later in the game when Amare and Boris do the same thing.

I see blatant homerism on the part of the refs, such as when they call David West for 3 fouls in 65 seconds, the other night, and Chris Paul gets 2 quick offensive foul calls on consecutive drives, but not call the flagrant 1 on Horry for his foul on West (and it should have been a flagrant, because clearly Horry’s intent was to hurt and cause pain, even if it was not to injure). The refs took the Hornets out of the game in the 3rd quarter of thursday’s game.

How the Suns managed to get to the conference finals vs the Mavs is still a source of wonderment to me. Two seasons ago, the injured and underpowered Suns were forced to play every two days in the playoffs (14 games in 28 days), when other teams (Mavs, Spurs ??) managed to get 2 or more 2 day breaks in each of their series. This year, there’s a 3 day break for game 7 of Spurs/Hornets, avoiding a weekend game. Hmmm.

Put all these things together, and it’s enough to almost make someone believe in conspiracies.

the scheduling 2 years ago. 14 games in 28 days. that was an unfair and brutal schedule. especially since the 2nd round schedule doesn’t get determined until the 6th game of the last series is played.

I assert no motive.. I’m just making observations..

I’ll buy the notion that Robert Horry came to the game straight from choir practice.

But nowadays, refs almost always call a flagrant 1 on a foul that results in injury, regardless of intent. And that would have been the right call in this situation.

However, if Tyson Chandler, say, had exacted the same foul on Tim Duncan, I’d bet dollars to pesos he would have been ejected faster than you can say “Joe Crawford”

In the Portland game, where TD hurt his knee, the “foul” was actually James Jones and Timmy getting tangled up. And Jones was assessed for a foul in that case. For something which he didn’t initiate and wasn’t even his fault.

As for hard screens, well Chandler did get called for a foul, and as we can see Tony P. got up from that with just having the wind knocked out of him. No injury.
BTW, hard screens are an expected part of the game.

But the Horry foul is an entirely different beast. If West’s feet had been set on the ground, Horry’s foul wouldn’t even have registered. But West was in the air, and therefore unable to brace himself or control his landing. And that makes all the difference, turning mundane contact into a dangerous sitch. The point here is that Horry is a vet, and should have backed off there because of the potential hazard to West. He didn’t. And the excuse that Horry didn’t have time to react is completely bogus.

Now, I never said Horry should have been ejected.. I said he should have been assessed the flagrant 1 (2 free throws + the ball), rather than a regular offensive foul or a flagrant 2, because imho his intent was mischievous rather malevolent (i.e he wanted to cause pain rather than injury). Horry’s foul was one of those “pro” plays, that most people don’t get.. kind of like Karl Malone stepping on people’s feet when he set a screen, or every Dennis Rodman defensive play. But if you watch enough games, especially if you’re neutral about the outcome or have watched Italian soccer, you learn to notice these things.

And you’re right, there have been a bunch of hard fouls in the playoffs this year, most noticably the Kevin Garnett retaliatory takedown on Pachulia in game 7 of the Hawks series, and Jason Kidd’s foul on Pargo. But the only suspensions (and all deserved, btw) assessed in these playoffs have been on lesser players.

And as for Joe Crawford, well you neglected to mention the fact that he was actually suspended after ejecting Timmy. The last time a referee tangled with a superstar like that was Jake O’Donnell ejecting Clyde Drexler. And O’Donnell never refereed another NBA game again.

I almost never side with the blind Zebras, but last time I checked, Joe is now reffing games again Makes me think about whether he might actually have been in the right.

And here’s Bob Young adding his 2 cents:

http://www.azcentral.com/members/Blog/BobYoung/23839

Just to show those Spurs homers that it’s not just bitter and crazed fans that see this subject the way we do.

I like his points, especially the Stern/Satan angle.

Who is this guy, and does he realize how foolish he sounds?

And i’m so glad you guys are talking about me again… I love Sun’s fans…

I am so sick and tired of Robert “Whorry”. Yeah, he’s been in the right place at the right time throughout his career, and has hit more than his fair share of big shots, but seriously – all this guy is now is a glorified goon. I don’t mean harm on most human beings, but I would love to punch him in the throat.

San Antonio Sucks!!
www.myspace.com/SanAntonioSucks