I'm currently watching a little late night west coast bball - Lakers at Portland. It's been a horrible night for LA all game and with seconds to go in the third quarter, the Blazers are up by 28. The Lakers miss a shot with under five seconds to go and the crowd is chanting "Beat LA!" Brandon Roy grabs the rebound and fires it to a streaking Rudy Fernandez who is racing against the clock to get a dunk before the horn to put Portland up 30. He's full fucking throttle. As he goes up, Trevor Ariza jumps up behind him and swipes at the ball, hits the ball and his follow through knocks the out-of-control Fernandez off balance and he crashes in to the stanchion.
What next?
Fernandez is clearly hurt. Brandon Roy and the rest of the Blazers rush Ariza and surround him in front of the Lakers bench. Lamar Odom leaves the bench and will likely be suspended. As the melee is going on, Fernandez is writhing around alone under the basket. The Blazers announcers are in an uproar. "Flagrant two! Flagrant two!" Then they see the replay and the play-by-play guy backs off a little. The color guy? Not so much. His best line was, "It wasn't the crashing in to the floor that caused the injury! It was Ariza's follow through!" Ya, whatever.
Well, the refs huddled, and in a very hockey ref style, deemed that, since Fernandez was still in a Spanish heap on the floor, that Ariza should be assessed a flagrant two foul and be ejected. One thing to remember: Fernandez is Spanish. As in soccer. As in sell the injury with the verve of an Oscar winner. They end up spine boarding him and taking him off on a stretcher.
I call bullshit on the call. It was a foul, but nothing malicious and I bet the flagrant two status gets rescinded and Ariza doesn't get suspended.
By the way, with three minutes to go in the game, the Blazers are still up huge, with all of their starters in and the Lakers having mostly second-stringers in there - including freaking Adam Morrison. Oh, and Roy just dunked again and the dipshit color guy just yelled "YES!! YES!!"*
And the word from the locker room just came out. Fernandez seems ok, just a little bruised.
*I actually usually like the Blazers announcers, but they were just really caught up in the emotion of tonight's game. However, they are just another example of the rampant homerism that is spreading throughout the league that will require a more in-depth poooast on the future.
**If this thing is YouTubed, look for when the Portland ball boy is running on to the court and Lakers assistant coach Kurt Rambis grabs him by the collar and throws him out of the scrum.
How about some instant feedback from Blazers fans:
Posted by bsportland on 03/09/09 at 9:22PM
Time to head to the Rose Garden to find Trevor Ariza!
Posted by mojoblazer33 on 03/09/09 at 9:22PM
I hope you are ok Rudy! Fouls like this are beyond basketball, you don't mess with peoples lives!
Posted by cemax on 03/09/09 at 9:27PM
Rudy, America and the world loves you. Get well.
Posted by mjmc on 03/09/09 at 9:29PM
how many guys are the lakers going to put in the hospital this year with cheap fouls!
call it how it is: phil jackson is a dirty cheat.
Posted by Linfieldgrad on 03/09/09 at 9:47PM
Rudy got hit so hard that Oden hurt his other knee
Line of the night!
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3 comments:
flagrant 2?! you're f'n joking. ariza was playing the ball all the way. watch the video. and little rudy's gonna be just fine . . . besides, looks like he may have an acting career when his hoops days are over
Mmmm... Shit...
And another funny thing about the incident - when Fernandez crashes into the floor and the basket and is lying in pain, the only person on the court who goes to help him is Jordan Farmar - a Laker!
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