On Tuesday of this week, the Charlotte Bobcats went into the Staples Center and beat the Lakers 117-110 in double overtime. It was the Bobcats' fourth win in their last five tries against the Lakers, and the game featured plenty of huge plays and last second heroics.
Ultimately, however, the game will be remembered for this foul.
Andrew Bynum was issued a flagrant foul for his hit on Gerald Wallace, and as a result of the foul, Wallace suffered a broken rib and a partially collapsed lung. When he will be able to return to action is unclear.
The flagrant foul on Bynum sparked the obvious debate this week: was the hit on Wallace a cheap shot or not? When I was watching it live, I didn't think so, it just looked like Bynum was taking a hard foul to prevent an easy basket late in the game, a game in which the Lakers already trailed by five with 2:08 to play.
After seeing this replay, however, I changed my tune. Stu Lantz says it best during the clip: Bynum doesn't play the ball. For that, he deserved a flagrant foul.
Which leads me to my next question: is there a difference between a cheap shot and a flagrant foul?
The answer is yes.
There is a clear difference between a flagrant foul and a cheap shot. A cheap shot, in my not so expert opinion, is one that doesn't come within the flow of the game, and is issued with more intent to injure the opposing player than to make a play. In this instance, I don't think what Bynum did was a cheap shot at all.
What Bynum did was stop a layup that would have put his team down seven points with two minutes to play. The end result is the only reason it needs to be discussed.
The Lakers were raked over the coals after the NBA Finals last season for not being tough enough inside. Now, after two hard fouls late against Cleveland on MLK day, followed up by the flagrant against Wallace a week later, all of the sudden Bynum and the Lakers are dirty.
Either the Lakers can play tough and send players a message when they go to the lane, just like the Pistons and Knicks did every time Michael Jordan attacked the rim, or play soft and lose. It's a lose-lose situation for this team.
They add toughness via the hard foul, they get criticized for it. They don't make players pay for going inside in the playoffs, they get criticized for it.
I ask you this: if your favorite team was in this no-win situation, would you rather see them not take hard fouls and be dubbed "soft," or defend the rim at all cost, even if it means being called dirty?
There isn't a fan in the world that would choose playing soft in that scenario.
So to you, Gerald Wallace, I regret that fact that you injured yourself, I truly do. But I'm sorry to say, the next time any opponent comes flying into the lane against my favorite team, I want to see that player face-first into the photographers.
It's nothing personal. It's just how good basketball is played.
To further illustrate my point on the difference between a hard foul and a cheap shot, today's Starting Five is comprised of some of the most memorable cheap shots in NBA history.
1. McHale Fouls Rambis
If we're going to talk about cheap shots, we had might as well start with the mother of all cheap shots. This foul from the 1984 Finals sums up exactly what my definition of a cheap shot is.
Kevin McHale can and probably does defend himself by saying that he was just trying to stop a transition bucket. I'm not buying it. He two-arm clotheslines Kurt Rambis in the open floor. No matter how you size it up, it was a cheap shot.
The best part of this foul was that not only was McHale not ejected, but at about 18 seconds into the clip, the announcer says that both benches have cleared, and it doesn't have any implications on the series itself. If that foul happened now, not only would McHale serve like a five-game suspension, but both teams would have had to play five-on-five the following game because each bench player from both teams would have been suspended.
My, how the game has changed.
2. Raja Bell Clotheslines Kobe
It hasn't changed entirely, however. Some players still execute the clothesline; it just comes at a steeper price.
Not only was Bell ejected for this foul, but he was also suspended for the following game. Maybe Bell was upset with himself over the fact that he realized that he wasn't the "Kobe-stopper" that the Suns hoped he would be in that series (Bryant averaged 27.9 points per game in the series), or maybe Kobe was asking for it with dirty plays on the other end of the floor.
Whatever the case, Bell's unnecessary clothesline just three short years ago sheds light on what a real cheap shot is, and should have critics of Andrew Bynum's play taking a long, hard look back before they dub the Gerald Wallace play as "dirty."
3. Horry Fouls Nash
Even for someone who hates the Suns as much as me, it's pretty hard to defend this one. The game was far from over (not that it matters), and Robert Horry inexplicably just hip-checked Steve Nash into the scorer's table. As far as cheap shots go, this is as first-class (or classless) as they come.
The question here isn't whether Horry committed a cheap shot; it's whether it decided the outcome of the series. Remember, after the hard foul, Boris Diaw and Amar'e Stoudemire were both suspended for leaving the bench. Would the Suns have been able to close out the series back at home with those two players active?
Maybe. But probably not. The Suns' gimmick style of play had proven time and again that it wasn't good enough to overcome the Spurs. This is a team that lost to the Spurs in the playoffs in 2003, 2005, 2007, and 2008.
With or without two of their best players suspended after the Horry cheap shot, this Suns team was not equipped to beat the Spurs. Period.
4. Bruce Bowen
Bruce Bowen has carved out a reputation as being one of the best perimeter defenders in the game. On the way to achieving this status, Bowen also developed a reputation as being one of the league's dirtiest players.
Over the years, Bowen has developed two signature moves, the undercut and the kick, and his choice of move varies depending on the situation.
When out on the perimeter, Bowen likes to undercut his opponent, as seen here.
When in tighter quarters, Bowen likes to use a kick to temporary disable/frustrate his opponent, as seen here.
But every once in a while, worlds will collide and Bowen will take his kick move to the perimeter and things like this happen.
Regardless of the situation, the "crafty" Bruce Bowen has proven time and time again that he is ready and willing to strike at any time, which surely won't hurt his reputation as a feared defender, for better or worse.
5. Laimbeer Fouls Everyone
It was hard to pick just one Bill Laimbeer foul to put on the list. After all, this is the same man who had a video game named "Bill Laimbeer Combat Basketball" to capitalize on his reputation as one of the dirtiest players in the league.
So instead, I went with a clip of Laimbeer being karate-chopped by "The Chief" Robert Parish. This video pretty much sums up how every opposing player felt about Laimbeer during his 14-year NBA career.
Love him or hate him, and unless you're from Detroit you hate him, Laimbeer had a great career. He was a four-time all-star in the '80s, had 10 consecutive seasons averaging at least 9 rebounds per game, including the 1985-86 season in which he led the league at 13.1 rebounds per game, and finished his career in the top five of virtually every statistic in the Detroit Pistons franchise history.
Yet, despite his talents, he will always be remembered as the Baddest of the Bad Boys, a title that I'm pretty sure he isn't ashamed of.
In the Rotation: Ernie Johnson, Jr.
Two things should be pretty clear by now if you've been reading In the Rotation this season: I love old-school NBA (see above) and I obsess over TV coverage of the NBA.
Already this season I've written about the comedy provided by home team announcers several times, vented on how bad C-Webb and G.P. are on NBA Fan night, and called out ESPN for blatantly taking Phil Jackson's quote about his future out of context.
It's time to finally give credit where credit is due.
On Wednesday of this week, E.J. was in the NBA studios for NBA Gamenight. He was teamed with Eric Snow (probably the most knowledgeable yet simultaneously the stiffest NBA analyst out there), and actually got some personality out of him. That in itself is worthy of making the rotation.
The next night, Ernie was doing his normal hosting duties for TNT on Thursday night, and he was joined by in dreaded duo of Gary Payton and Chris Webber.
Not only was E.J. able to curtail the childish antics of G.P. and C-Webb, but he also set them up perfectly for some expert analysis. And you know what? They actually sounded like experts.
I was just as shocked to see it as you, but when you get past the screaming and constant ball-busting, G.P. and C-Webb actually have great points to make. Apparently, Ahmad Rashad just isn't good enough as a host to get it out of them.
Props to Ernie for not only staying afloat during the Charles Barkley suspension, but for keeping the show at its best despite losing its star. It may sound like a small task, just a TV man doing his job, but after watching E. Snow awkwardly size up Andre Aldridge three nights a week, and Amahad lose complete control of the show regularly while Gary and Chris are whooping it up, I think E.J. deserves a medal for his work.
(P.S. Thank the NBA for Sir Charles not making the Starting Five. He wasn't just a cheap shot artist, he was a cheap shot Rembrandt. However, none of his fouls, or various other famous hard fouls for that matter, can be viewed on YouTube because the NBA "coincidentally" erased just about every video that has anything to do with a cheap shot. You can find highlights of any NBA player you want at the click of a button and copyright laws don't apply. But the second you post a video featuring a dirty play, hell hath no fury like David Stern.)
Out of the Rotation: Jose Calderon's Free Throw Streak
On Friday night, the Toronto Raptors' Jose Caledron missed his first free throw of the season. He had made 87 consecutive free throws, good for the second longest streak in NBA history behind only Micheal Williams, who made 97 straight in 1993.
As I've already discussed at length, I'm a big fan of the history of the game, and I think that records are meant to be broken. Calderon finally missing a free throw puts an end to one of the only chances we had this NBA season to see someone make history.
Congratulations to Jose Calderon and his impressive streak, but let's hope someone starts doing something great again very soon so we can start tracking history again as soon as possible. We NBA junkies need to get our fix from somewhere before the playoffs start.
Be sure to check back at Sports Central every Monday to see who cracks Scott Shepherd's rotation as he breaks down what is going on around the NBA.
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