Why would he throw an elbow into his midsection and run off the court in doing so???? I don't think D'Antoni would be complaining about someone grazing him. You look at what Blake was doing - the spiking the ball at Gordon's mid-section, the bumps into Paul , the contact with Ariza. No, he was intentionally trying to be a thug. Whatever punishment Ariza gets, I hope BG gets the same.
Good answers, but I still don’t think he would do such a thing right in front of the ref just because he is a “thug”. Even Matt Barnes wouldn’t do that. There was something else at play there, and shortly into this thread a poster pointed out that it had to do with D’antoni nor being in the coach’s box. I flashed back to the Kidd-Woodson incident, and it made sense what he was trying to do. Again, not a justification, because (a) it’s a cheap maneuver in any case, and (b) he could have also been trying to start something with the team by doing it and not merely trying to get a tech called on our coach.
Eh, PJ deserved it from all accounts... There's a reason he has mainly been stuck as an assistant ever since. @Codman: Do you have any inside info on the Spreewell/Carlisimo incident? This was one of the first hot topic threads I recall posting in when we were ClutchCity.net back in the day. Everyone was bashing Latrell, but my take was that PJ was a sizable part of the problem that most were overlooking.
To be honest, that video clip is not that clear. Obviously he did hit D'Antoni with his elbow (and with that running speed, could be quite hard) or else the coach would not have said that. But "hit" has a lot of different shades. What it looks to me is that he wanted to shove MDA off the court. That makes sense because he was complaining that MDA was on the court. It's still worthy of fine and suspension. But it is not the same as "hitting" an old man as in trying to hurt him in a fight. If he swung a punch (like Ariza one time did to a player when he was with Washington) or swung a high elbow (like Artest did to Harden), that would be totally different.
As the videos show, Doc was on the court, and MDA was still out of bounds. I think Blake was trying to get away with a slight shove to deliver a message , "Stay off the court" - not hurt him, not hit him, but definitely deliver a message. The fact that Blake had to step out of bounds to do that maneuver is damning and proof it wasn't just running wide on a play. I never see players run out of bounds like that in transition. Never. Blake is a thug - but a smart one. He's been around long enough to know what he can get away. Disguising beaning a player with the ball as a legit play. It wasn't. He was trying to bean Gordon. The way he made contact with Paul and Capela on his drives. He wasn't just knocking them over - he was TRYING to knock them over. He intentionally made contact with a coach while the coach was not on the floor. That has to be a suspension.
Not a justification at all Doc Rivers is always out of the coaches box even his assistant is. Go check or rewatch the game and just count how many times during game play they are either outside their area or in the court. Plus u could see Blake looking at D’Antoni way before he was near him he did it purposely. All game he was whining about fouls not being called. b****ing at the refs for not getting and 1s. Also trez was trying to prove something even though is all business. He should learn that or maybe he will once he is traded again. Which team wouldn’t trade trez or all the guys for cp3. Maybe you try to hold Pat but of all the players traded you do that trade. If you notice Blake aka flake always picks on smaller guys. We don’t really have any one tough like a Zach Randolph. But even against Ariza or tucker even though they are smaller he was thinking about it. He picked on Paul and coach.
The Rockets and Clippers are gonna get heavily fined for this...Wouldnt doubt if Blake was suspended. But so could some of our players.
Was Griffin hoping to draw a whistle against MDA, like Kidd did against Woodson, or was he trying to send a message “Stay off the court!” and thought the ref behind him would let him get away with it? Now, I’m thinking it’s more the latter.
Houston is going to murder the Clippers the next time they play. I can guarantee that. Hell, they might even play defense for a change.
See the way the national media brushes this hit or even the attempt off is just bull. Can you imagine Harden pointing at a coach, running at him, going out of his way to do something? He would be murdered! The point is not even the hit, it’s how he goes out of his way, out of bounds rushing at a coach!!! This is unacceptable. If the league doesn’t punish that equally, I hope the Rockets will become the nastiest, most hated team and just start to go bad boys Pistons on everyone.
IMHO... I think Griffin let his emotions get the better of him, and the long running drama over the whole CP3, Doc Rivers, Austin Rivers, leadership and Clippers "culture"... just finally spilled over. The vibe was there from the start of the game, and what's weird is that even the Rockets former players seemed to be sucked into it. Harrell, Lou Williams, Beverly, and Dekker were all out there with bad attitudes. Perhaps they were just trying to beat their old team initially, but the bad blood and overall vibe of the the Clippers soon took over the whole team, and it just got worse and worse. Doc and Austin Rivers definitely had some part in all of it though, and they obviously wanted to get CP3 back for making negative comments after leaving them. As for Griffin... he was the major instigator on the court. He was playing bully ball all night long, chirping, bumping, shoving, etc.. He was definitely trying to up stage CP3 and send a message. It just happened to spill over to the whole Rockets team, and that's because Griffin is basically weak. That's what CP3 has been trying to get across to him for years, and that's part of the reason why the Clippers kept losing, and that's one of the primary reasons why CP3 turned down $200 million to resign with them. But instead of going at CP3 directly, and channeling all of his resentment towards him... Griffin decided to try and send a message by bullying and pissing off all of the other Rockets... including coach D'antoni. And that's where he made his biggest mistake. I honestly believe that the Rockets would not have escalated the whole thing the way they did... if Griffin had not hit D'antoni. What happens on the court, between the players is one thing... but under NO circumstances is it EVER okay to involve a coach, hit a coach, or disrespect a coach... IF that coach did nothing to warrant it. Unless a coach actively does something to involve himself into the on the court friction with the players... then coaches are like wives and children... off limits. And D'antoni had nothing to do with all of the crap going on between the players. So Griffin was waaaay out of line doing that to coach D'antoni, and IMO,.. THAT'S what made the Rockets players extra mad. If I was Doc Rivers... I would take Griffin aside and let him know that "that" was out of line. There was absolutely no reason for him to disrespect another coach that way. If you want to fight and take it out with the other team, or certain players... then do that then... but don't ever disrespect our whole organization that way. I don't think the NBA is going to punish Griffin for making contact with D'antoni... but I do think they should, based on the circumstances, and based on all of Griffin's actions that night.
"But last season, the NBA took no action after Ariza waited in a hallway in Dallas for Mavericks center Salah Mejri" http://www.houstonchronicle.com/spo...m_source=CMS Sharing Button&utm_medium=social This is this incident I was referencing earlier regarding precedent. Most of the previous confrontations included attempts to get physical. Doesn't appear that anyone got physical in this altercation. Wouldn't be surprised if there was no action from the NBA.
Ehhh I wasn’t referencing that. It’s a meme from 9-10 years ago when we were in school. There was a kid who put up a video as he was very sad and he was explaining that gingers have souls.
