[dallasnews] Nowitzki will pay for flagrant foul

magnetik · Nov 7, 2005

I wonder when Mason's is coming... there are some mention of the Rockets too. Sorry if it's been posted already..

Source

Nowitzki will pay for flagrant foul

League ruling brings $1,000 fine, moves star closer to suspension

By EDDIE SEFKO / The Dallas Morning News

It was just a few weeks ago that TNT analyst Charles Barkley was deriding the Mavericks – again – saying they "can't win it all like they are now because you can't do it when your best player is as soft as tissue paper."

The NBA wishes to disagree with Barkley. The league thought Dirk Nowitzki was plenty tough at Utah on Wednesday.

His flagrant-one foul against Matt Harpring during the loss to the Jazz was upgraded by the league to a flagrant-two, NBA and Mavericks officials said Saturday.

The league uses a points system to dole out suspensions for flagrant fouls. When a player reaches five points, an automatic one-game suspension is invoked. Nowitzki now has two points, instead of one.

A flagrant-two is described in the NBA rulebook as being unnecessary and aggressive.

A flagrant-two also carries with it an automatic ejection and a $1,000 fine. The ejection, however, cannot be carried over to the next game.

The Spurs were jokingly pulling for harsher punishment of Nowitzki during their morning shootaround Saturday.

"He didn't get suspended for that stuff?" yelled Nick Van Exel in the direction of a longtime Mavericks employee. "That's crazy."

Van Exel a surprise Spur: Former Maverick Nick Van Exel knew the Spurs had point guards Tony Parker and Beno Udrih. For that reason, he didn't really expect to be in San Antonio this season.

"Houston was at the top of my list, but I don't think Coach [Jeff] Van Gundy wanted me," Van Exel said. "San Antonio wasn't really near the top of my list because they had two good point guards."

As for whether he would have any butterflies playing the Mavericks, Van Exel said: "It's Michael [Finley's] turn now. He'll be out there trying to look cool, but he'll be twitching on the inside."

Briefly: Dale Jarrett was among the NASCAR notables in attendance Saturday night. Also, Tony Parker squeeze and Desperate Housewives star Eva Longoria was sitting in the second row. ... The oddest sight was actually seeing Michael Finley on the court warming up before the game. In the previous four years in which the Mavericks were in the American Airlines Center, Finley always warmed up on the practice floor before the game. ... Coach Avery Johnson is not a fan of the Mavericks' pace so far. "We're not running offensively like we did last year," he said. "What they think is running both ways, I don't consider it running yet. We [need] some sort of better running game, which can kind of spark our offense." ...

With a .395 shooting percentage heading into the third game of the season, Dirk Nowitzki clearly wasn't operating comfortably on the offensive end. That changed against the Spurs. If his sore lower back was bothering him before, it didn't against the Spurs. "Every team right now has guys who are working through some early season stuff," Avery Johnson said. "I saw one deal where [Houston's Tracy] McGrady wasn't playing. Whether it's McGrady or [Jerry] Stackhouse for us, there are guys fighting through things."
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[dallasnews] Nowitzki will pay for flagrant foul

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