Is Utah retiring Matt Harpring's number too? The butt grease that Karl Malone used to help him slide 5ft further than humanly possible? Let's not even retire players anymore. Let's just retire beautiful plays, like that time Dirk Nowitzki flopped on Scola at the FT line and rolled so much like a clown on a bicycle until arm ended up at the half court line. What a beautiful game.
To me Bowen was an iconic player to the Spurs organization. Obviously they thought that as well, they retired his number. Its like Big Ben getting his number retired in Detroit City, or the worm getting his jersey retired in Chicago. Anyway the strongest argument for this is its their team, they can retire whoever they want. Miami retired MJ's number, that to me is far more r****ded than Spurs retiring Bowen's. What did MJ do for them? Not a damn thing
big ben, oakley and rodman were definitely hard players who played a very physical game, but i never thought of them as "dirty" like bowen or karl malone who were just punks who went out of their way to intentionally hurt opposing players - those two are the worst ive seen. most people wouldnt care except for the fact that bowen is one of the dirtiest players in modern nba history and he acts like he is this good guy. i remember once when someone called him out for some dirty play he said "i would never do that, im a christian"...what a freaking chump. how many ankles did that jack-ass roll by sticking his feet under jump shooters...that should have been automatic ejection when he pulled that crap, but they let him get away w/ it and lots of players got injured. he definitely played a role in the demise of steve francis, who was never the same after he got "bowened". <iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/tdxXvkMB6gA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> btw, when karl malone was in his early 20's he impregnated a 12 year old girl...and the jazz fans put up a statue of him infront of their arena!
Haha! I'm glad Malone'a flying jump kick layup was retired by Father Time. Whenever he pulled that move, which was often, my TV nearly went on the floor or out the nearest window. That team was pure scum from the coach to the last man on the bench.
No, officer, I wasn't speeding...I was just doing what needed to be done to make it from Pasadena to The Woodlands in 5 minutes. Give me a break. I love this addage that guys "do the dirty work" or "do the small things". Bruce Bowen was good at one thing, fooling people (particularly Spurs FO and fans) that he somehow deserved to be GIVEN MONEY to play basketball. He tripped 1's, hand checked and put his foot underneath 2's, was a 3, so patting him on the back for knowing how to guard his own position is a bit much...and simply kicked or knee'd 4's in their junk. This guy was such a cancer on the NBA, it physically hurt me to watch him play. The only solice was when a truly talented basketball player exposed him as the overated defender he was.