The silver lining to this whole ordeal is that now the refs should be even more aware of the shenanigans Bogut and Green pull. Hopefully they're looking for it in Game 5.
Basically the problem is that a Flagrant 1 is "unecessary" which means not necessary. A Flagrant 2 means the same thing by ordinary parlance: "excessive" is by definition "more than necessary" or "unecessary." You could say that a Flagrant 2 is just "extra-unecessary" which is incredibly vague. The actual analysis is the 6 factors I mentioned earlier which are also vague.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Keys to Thorn's ruling were that Howard was trying to extricate himself from Bogut and open hand. He emphasized both in our quick interview.</p>— Jonathan Feigen (@Jonathan_Feigen) <a href="https://twitter.com/Jonathan_Feigen/status/603343811499040768">May 26, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Howard needs to be careful the rest of the series. Look for the refs to have a quicker whistle the rest of the series.
League officials deemed that Howard's blow to Golden State Warriors center Andrew Bogut did not rise to the standard that would trigger an upgrade to a flagrant foul 2. Howard, who was called for a flagrant 1, would have been given an automatic suspension had the foul been upgraded due to previous flagrant fouls in the playoffs. "I deemed it unnecessary but not unnecessary and excessive," NBA president of basketball operations Rod Thorn said. "It wasn't over the limit." Thorn said that Howard was at first trying to free himself from getting tangled with Bogut. He said that Howard did not make contact with Bogut with an elbow but with the back of his hand. He also said Howard's status on the cusp of an automatic suspension did not play a factor in the decision. "I did not take into consideration [the automatic suspension]," Thorn said. "I take each situation on its own." Howard also is on the verge of a suspension because of technical fouls. One more technical or one more flagrant foul would trigger a suspension. Now can you admit that you were completely wrong sir.
Of course I was wrong as I hoped to be, since the decision is to be flagrant 1. No argue here? What's your point? That in any situation like Dwight's the standard league decision after review would be a flagrant 1? History has proven you wrong if that's what you suggest. The Rockets and Dwight were lucky here.
