I'm sure I've mentioned it before, but I don't enjoy the way Tony Parker plays basketball. Amare Stoudemire just "tripped" Parker ... I didn't see that. I realize Tony Parker is French, but that's not why I dislike him. He's married to Eva Longoria (soon to be the 2nd most famous sports-related Longoria?) - who cares?
While Parker is somewhat lacking as a shooter (he's never shot 80% from the FT line and has only been over 34% from 3-pt range once in his career), he is very difficult to keep out of the paint and does a good job finding open teammates off his penetration. And, when Parker is shooting well from outside, he is very difficult to guard (at least that's how it looks from the comfort of my couch).
My problem with Parker is another referee-related issue. Parker initiates contact and then flops. A good example is when he jumped perpendicular to the direction he was driving (which was straight towards the basket), hit Amare in the face with the ball, flopped, and got free throws.
I'm fine with drawing contact, but that's not what Parker does. Parker commits offensive fouls and, miraculously, gets calls from the refs to send him to the line. And, to top it off, he whines and complains about the contact. If LeBron wants to talk to the refs after being whacked across the head or being shoved with both hands by a 7-footer, fine. I don't think that's what he was hoping would happen on his drives. Parker is determining the outcome and complaining about it. It's like buying a puppy and then being distraught when it grows into a full-size dog. WTF did you think was going to happen?
Celtics v. Hawks
Why aren't the people who came off the bench in the skirmish being suspended? I thought we learned last year that there wasn't room for interpretation. Isn't that what David Stern told us about that rule? That's why Stoudemire (and Boris Diaw?) wasn't eligible for a game against the Spurs last year.
I haven't seen the incident between Garnett and Pachulia, but the ESPN ticker says Kendrick Perkins and Marvin Williams admitted to leaving the bench. Maybe they weren't moving with as much fervor as the Phoenix players did last year, but I thought that the rule was the rule. Yet another NBA ruling (or lack thereof) that makes absolutely no sense at all.
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2 comments:
I taped 1st and 10 and just turned it on. Jeff Chadiha says "there's no doubt in mind mind that he (Kendrick Perkins) is going to be gone." Skip thought Garnett, Perkins and Williams would all be suspended. Are there rules nobody knows about?
Couldn't agree more with you about Mr. Eva Longoria and/or ___________ (insert teammate here). I believe there is a Vanity Fair interview of E.L. in which she says that Tony has told her not to worry when he falls down because he is just hamming it up to try and get the next call (I am paraphrasing).
I liked Shaq's quote where he said something like, "Hopefully those guys will try to compete instead of just falling down."
Although there are Americans who have well-developed flopping skills (A.I., Bruce Bowen, and Derrick Fisher, to name a few). I think that this is a European/South American import that has been brought to us by kids that grew up playing soccer.
I played organized soccer at a fairly high level and flopping (or diving, as it is called in futbol) is part of the culture. Some players just try to get into the box with the ball, wait for someone to "fart in their general direction," and go down to try to draw a penalty kick.
As you no doubt are aware, soccer has attempted to deal with this (with limited success) by awarding yellow cards to players that the referee believes is taking a dive. I would like to see this approach adopted by the NBA, with flopping being a technical foul (2 of them and you would be gonzo).
FYI- there is some dialog on this in the B.S. chat over on ESPN.com.
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