Harrell is probably pissed off at the world, mainly JBB, for not giving him his chance despite proving he hustles more than anyone else on the team. He can't win and now it's starting to get to him
It sucks for Montrezl because this could end up hurting his career unless he learns how to control his anger and not let some undrafted DL scrub get under his skin. From the sound of things on the video, Bakersfield was getting away with a lot of BS and the refs weren't doing what they needed to do to get control of it.
Your photo isn't displaying, so I made some. You might have caught a split second late. Ref is directly in front of him (between his shoulders), with both hands on him. In football terms, that's a legal block by the ref. :grin: And he's not rushing in from the side, as the other photos show. He was always at Montrezl. Looking at these 7 photos, you surely can make a case that he knows that's a ref. He surely knows someone is there, and in no photos is there anyone else behind or to the right. Not trying to win an argument here. Just making my vote. He had to have known that was a ref right there in front of him. Photo #1 This is right after the shove, when the camera turns. The right arm extended is the ref already engaging Harrel. Photo #2 Photo #3 --the shove Now, the prior photos Photo #4 -- ref already engaging the two. How can you not know that's a ref? And no one is behind or to the right. No white jerseys come anywhere close, and ref is in light grey. Photo #5 -- ref continues to yell Photo #6 -- Ref in the middle at point of first shove
I don't know what else to say, other than I could not disagree more with the "in front of him" commentary. Every one of your photos shows the official to the right of where Harrell is looking/going, not directly in his line of vision. His line of vision is squarely to the left and on No. 22, who initiated the entire sequence by shoving him for no reason. And at the moment of the shove (your photo #3), there are at least two and possibly three blue shirts in his immediate peripheral vision, all of whom could stand between Montrezl and the guy who went after him.
I don't understand this conversation. You've got a referee who steps in between two players while trying to break up a fight, and a player who then shoves that referee to the ground. Why would anyone try to interpret Harrell's actions charitably and sympathetically on his behalf? I just don't get that, I really don't. If Harrell is so out of control that he cannot recognize that the person he is shoving is THE REFEREE, doesn't that actually make the incident worse? I don't see how it makes it better. I honestly don't get the reason for trying to let Harrell off the hook for what he did here, or trying to minimize what he did here.
You know it's a turrrible season when this push in a DL game generates this much debate. I don't think he meant to shove a ref but he was emotionally out of control, frustrated by losing and by being w' the Vipers. But there's no real excuse.
Besides this incident, he got into an altercation with an opposing coach and threw a punch last season at Louisville. Dude needs to calm down. Plenty of hotheads in the NBA, but it's never a good thing when people get physical.
Do you also think the player who shoved Harrell hard -- for no apparent reason and without being provoked -- should be suspended? To me, that's similarly bad to the scenario you described. No one's trying to let Harrell off the hook. He's in the wrong. However, the world isn't black and white. People make mistakes and life goes on. If someone gets caught stealing a candy bar from the gas station down the street, they aren't penalized with life in prison. There are degrees of offenses. If you "honestly don't get the reason" for exploring the specifics, I certainly hope you don't have a job anywhere close to our legal system. P.S. I said this earlier, but this event happened Saturday night, and there were numerous media and fans in attendance as well as more watching online. Don't you think it's a little odd that no one thought this was worth mentioning until the NBRA's general counsel (a man with a well-established history of grandstanding and exaggerations) decided to throw a temper-tantrum on Monday afternoon? Why didn't people watching this event first-hand think this was a major story?
By the way, count Jonathan Feigen among those who doesn't think it was intentional: http://www.chron.com/sports/rockets...zl-Harrell-shoves-ref-in-D-League-7215106.php
Our only player with fire. Sigh. I don't think he was targeting the ref, but it won't matter too much in his punishment. The league, even that league, has to have a bright line protecting officials and also fans. Period.
Here's how the scene was described Saturday evening from Dennis Silva, the RGV beat writer from The Monitor (he was in attendance): http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nba-b...-to-ground-after-d-league-game-185047636.html
It's funny how refs always try to hold back the player who is enraged due to their lack of control over the game. The players being favored by the calls are allowed to heckle and smile while the angry player is restrained by the refs. Just have to be smart enough not to push the ref, or the other team is giong to have their cake AND eat it too. Winning is literally the only way to vent frustration. Anything else is not going to end well.
This is all just a huge misunderstanding. Montrezl was anticipating an attack by #22 and the ref was in the way, hence he thought he was saving he ref's life by shoving him out of the way. He should be rewarded, not punished.
I get this a bit more clearly now and I also understand the world isn't black and white, so I agree with part of what you say here. But the player who shoved Harrell does NOT equal a player shoving a ref. That's completely apples and oranges from where I sit--and I don't care if you get caught up in the moment and can't see straight. You don't touch the ref. Period. And if the league doesn't protect its refs in this situation, I think that's a sad commentary on the league. I honestly don't care about the NRBR's general counsel, and his history and reputation. The legal definition of battery is pretty clear, and there does not need to be a specific intent to cause "harm." Battery can simply be unwanted physical contact. I think refs have it hard enough, and there are plenty of cases where referees have been physically assaulted after games, etc. Hell, there was a referee who was shot to death by a player on a soccer field IN A GAME STILL BEING PLAYED in Argentina just this past February. So I'm not very sympathetic to Harrell's got-carried-away-i.e.-temporary-insanity defense here. If you can't control yourself, you don't belong on a professional basketball floor. Name me one other job where you can lose control of yourself in this fashion and haul off and whale on somebody without serious repercussions. I don't think you can. In ethics as in law, there is a distinction between "justice" and "mercy." Harrell is a two-time offender (maybe even a three-timer), at some point the mercy must give way to justice.
There are penalties for players shoving other players: techincals. It's a less severe penalty because it's a pretty common occurrence. Basketball on this level is a very physical and athletes will get heated with each other, so the technical foul is just there to enforce sportsmanship. Going beyond that could warrant a suspension. Getting physical with refs is not a common occurrence, it is a highly unusual. Hard to imagine where a player would be justified in that situation and it certainly wasn't in this case. It's not the same as getting pushed by another player and getting frustrated. If a fan attacked a player they would be ejected and possibly banned for life from the arena because you just can't imagine a justification for it. Player interaction is not the same as interaction with anyone else.
props to the ref. he is just trying to get his hustle on to one day replace the joey crawfords of the league. he took that fall like a champ, like a manu, fearless to the hardwood. I'm reminded of the great chinese proverb, "the energy of the new generation inspires the old."
People here are making it seem like the referee died after Harrell pushed him. I don't even understand why he's not playing minutes on our team being that he's part of the future.
The Cat, You are protecting Harrell, almost to the point of having a vendetta against the refs, as you already posted. Ref is squarely in front of him, engaging him with arms. You're trying to excuse Harrell for not making eye contact. Is that it? So Harrell deaf and blind. The ref is yelling the whole time, too. Please. The ref did nearly everything possible to get Harrell's attention right away. Everyone should know that is a ref. As others said, if he goes into a Red Zone of blind rage, that's equally dangerous, if not more.
making something out of nothing but giving his history and of course the fact that he plays for the Rockets this will be blown up.
