NBA Gives Cavs a Gift
The Cavs’ 112-97 victory in Game Five of the NBA Finals is tainted due to the NBA’s mindboggling decision to suspend Draymond Green.
Yes, I know, it wasn’t done for the specific action from Game Four, but due to accumulating enough flagrant foul points blah blah blah. Give me a break. To call Green’s actions in Game Four a Flagrant Foul is a travesty.
Brian Windhorst – you know, LeBron James’ personal stalker LeBron James’ biographer one of ESPN’s most prominent NBA writers[1] – spearheaded the campaign under the guise of reporting. He said that the NBA was looking at Green’s “groin shot” on LeBron James. My first thought was, “What groin shot?” Then when I saw the slo-mo replay, I still said, “What groin shot?” Someone had to say where it was for me to see it. And I still didn’t see it. I saw a backhanded tap at James’ leg. If Green had hit James in the groin, James would have stopped for a moment and doubled over – even if just for a split second. But there was no reaction from James AT ALL. And if Green had INTENDED to hit James in the groin, he wouldn’t have done a backhanded tap. His motion would have been more like a boxing uppercut. So again, I didn’t see a groin shot. I saw a backhanded tap at James’ leg.
Let’s break down the play again. And I mean the entire play.
Green was setting a pick beyond the three-point arc past the top of the free throw circle, when James grabbed him and threw him to the side. (Foul, but no call.)
Green got up and attempted to set another pick in the same location, but was not stationary when contact occurred (illegal screen foul, but no-call). James then knocked Green to the floor. (Foul, but no call.)
James then walked over the top of Green, who was down on the floor. (Huge sign of disrespect in basketball, should have been a technical foul (later was made one by the league, but what good did that do?), no call.)
Green then took a backhanded tap at James’ leg before getting up.
Why did it even get to that point? If the officials had called any of those aforementioned fouls, the Green tap never would have happened.
And once it did happen, the double foul that occurred under the basket was called correctly. Everything should have stopped with that, but it didn’t.
Upgrading the play to a Flagrant 1, which made an automatic suspension kick in, punished the victim more than the perpetrator. That is just plain wrong.
No, the league did not lose the game for the Warriors. But they certainly increased the handicap, and the handicap became exponentially greater when the Warriors lost Andrew Bogut to injury. Of course, injuries happen, but with Green still there, the Warriors would have had a much better chance to win – but that option was taken away by an inexcusable suspension.
This was the most unfair, indefensible postseason suspension since Amar’e Stoudemire and Boris Diaw were suspended in 2007. That was another example where the victim paid more than the perpetrator.[2]
When will the league learn its lesson? Or did they want to handicap the Warriors, who looked to be cruising to a back-to-back title?
June 16, 2016 9:05 pm MST
[1] Who just so happened to have gone to the same high school as LeBron James, just not at the same time. Who has covered LeBron James from high school ball onward. Who followed him to Miami and then back to Cleveland (under orders from and while employed by ESPN, but still).
[2] To recap, in the closing seconds of the Suns’ Game Four win over the Spurs on the road (making the series 2-2) in the Western Semis, Robert Horry board-checked Steve Nash into the scorer’s table. Stoudemire and Diaw ran over to Nash from the bench, and when they couldn’t reach him, they started jawing at Horry. Stoudemire and Diaw – two starters – were suspended for one game for leaving the bench to join in on an altercation, even though they were simply checking on Nash (their meal ticket to a possible championship) and then yelling at Horry, with whom they were understandably upset. Horry – a reserve who played limited minutes – was suspended for two games. Who got the worst end of that deal, hmm?
