Brown on Maxiell

PJ Brown was whistled for two fouls on attempted lob dunks by Jason Maxiell in the fifth game of the series between Detroit and Boston. On the first one, the officials called it a flagrant one.

While Mike Breen agreed with the flagrant call, Mark Jackson and Jeff Van Gundy disagreed. Then, after the second play, Jackson and Van Gundy said it was the exact same play. I hope they were just kidding around. If not, they have no business being on NBA telecasts, because they obviously don't understand what is going on.

On the first foul, PJ Brown didn't make a play on the ball. He didn't jump and contacted Maxiell as Maxiell grabbed the ball. Maxiell was off the ground and was above the rim. Brown's hands might have made it to Maxiell's elbow. While Brown didn't blatantly push Maxiell out-of-bounds or even foul Maxiell particularly hard, he didn't make a play on the ball either. The call seemed to be in line with similar rulings during the regular season and playoffs.

On the second one, Brown met Maxiell at the ball. In fact, Doc Rivers and the Boston fans thought Brown got to the ball first. Maxiell went for the ball with two hands and Brown only got one hand on it, so there may have been a foul with Brown's other arm, I'm not really sure exactly what the official called. Obviously, this was a case of Brown making a play on the ball.

Van Gundy and Jackson saying the two plays were exactly the same is just ridiculous. The first one was obviously a foul, the second one probably should have been a no call (and not like the no call at the end of the Spurs v. Lakers game last night). Brown made a play on the ball on the second one and he didn't on the first. Van Gundy and Jackson may have a legitimate argument that there wasn't excessive enough contact by Brown on the first one to warrant a flagrant foul, but by taking the absurd position they did after the second one, their opinions lost all credibility.