EXACTLY! This is equal to a coach complaining about refs after a game. They know they will get fined, but they know in the end it puts the refs under the spotlight. Kobe might STILL get away with the dirty plays because he's Kobe...but Artest shouldn't even have been ejected. He was just expecting a Tech and that's all he should have got.
That's UTTER BS. We had a chance to win the game when he was ejected. Getting thrown out of the game at that point didn't help us one bit.
They weren't playing the game for us...so we could be happy...so we can condemn them and judge them...they were playing because they wanted to win. It was pretty obvious that wasn't going to happen and losing a game is not the end of the world. Everybody loses... But make no mistake, sometimes you gotta make some mistakes on purpose. Ron did not get thrown out because he wanted to. Ron didn't deserve to GET thrown out. What Ron did tonight...at that point...in THAT game...in THAT situation was PERFECT! If Ron did that in a 2pt game with 1:30 on the clock, that would NOT have been perfect. I know we're all supposed to hate physicality and confrontation in this new Utopian society that the world is trying to be but messages can be sent in various forms and sometimes you can send a very effective message to someone by breaking their nose. I promise you, when your nose gets shattered, you tend to think twice about doing whatever it was that caused it to BECOME shattered. The "Dear Mr. Referree. Mr. Bryant is not playing with the utmost of fairness this evening" approach is a fine approach...at times. Tonight, Artest was perfect, IMHO! And I'm betting the refs take a better look at Kobe next game. If they do, and they call him for this crap, would it have been the right decision looking back? Of course, it would! It's just a game but it's uncanny how our own bold or cowardly approaches to life shape our opinion on situations like this. I've played a lot of ball in my day and I'm telling ya - someone on my team would've dropped an elbow across Kobe's face! But that's me - some people would rather discuss it like gentlemen and I respect that. But no way in hell do I lay down to that bunch of cocky pricks from LA - AINT NO WAY that happens!
BS. Kobe will go for more cheapshots when the ref isn't looking throughout the series. There is nothing to satisfy Kobe more than for Artest getting ejected again and us losing more games because of it.
I will hold you to that... With proper officiating, that will backfire like it did with the Scola incident... Ron handled this in a VERY mature manner... The refs were the ones who got flustered...
I said yesterday in the Battier thread that if it were Artest, he might have lost it and Kobe would have gotten what he wanted. But Battier didn't bite. That pissed Kobe off. That made Kobe's cheap shot backfire. Artest, on the other hand, did exactly what Kobe wanted him to do. That's dumb. Some of you people are as dumb as Artest. That is not called "standing up for yourself." That is called "playing into your enemy's hands."
I'm sorry Will, but i cant agree with you here. In my mind Ron did the right thing, and the only thing he could do, to confront kobe and tell him that we wont take cheap shots like that and back down.
First off, the refs will be watching closer for cheap shots than they did tonight. Secondly, Ron didn't deserve and tech, and if he did the exact same thing, the league wouldn't repeat tonight's ejection. Finally, Kobe may actually get a technical foul credited towards him tomorrow for his elbow. You're only allowed seven technicals in the playoffs before the suspensions pile on. Kobe can't throw that many elbows at Artest, and I have enough confidence in Artest's cool-ness in not getting tossed again.
I agree, the Rockets showed some cracks, but I think this was the "right" game to go a little nuts. IMO it's going to fuel this team to go that much harder during our homestand. I don't worry about our veteran guys like Scola and Artest, and I think our young PGs will play with more poise in Game 3. However, I think we need Mutombo to make an appearance and get Wafer's head straight, and give a motivational speech to Yao.
I trust Ron enough to say that I don't think he will lose his head in this series. His post-game interview showed a confident, mature man, who was trying to prove a point tonight. He was not meaning to get thrown out, and everyone agrees that Crawford overreacted. He was just playing basketball, like he knows how to do. He did the thing that many respectable NBA players would do (including Kobe Bryant, in my opinion), just maybe not in the same way as Artest. Artest approached Kobe to tell him that he was not going to get rid of him by elbowing him and cheap-shotting him. To let Kobe know that the refs were aware of it. There's nothing wrong with that. It's throw-back basketball. The league is just becoming so soft that nobody can respect that. I have to say that if someone was elbowed in the throat like Ron was, and it was 1995, I have to say that Dream and Clyde would have done the same thing that Ron did. Jordan would have too. None of them would have been thrown out. Ron got thrown out because of his past. I respect what he did. With hindsight, he should have gone about approaching Kobe in a different way, but like I said, you show me someone that would have acted way more calm, and I'll show you someone who is not respected as a "tough" player in the NBA.
This isn't about what he deserved. Stu Jackson will look at the video tonight and decide what was deserved. The referees, in the heat and speed of the game, make decisions that are better understood as political. They have just thrown out a Laker on the Lakers' home court. You, a Rocket, have then been wronged. You don't respond by running at the guy who wronged you and putting the refs on the spot politically. It's a political judgment, and Ron totally blew it.
Some people just don't get it. Shane got knocked around last game and nothing was done. The game just got dirtier and the Lakers will win that game because Kobe is untouchable. You could make the case that Ron lost this game but his actions gave us a chance for the rest of this series. What are we supposed to do? Wait till Shane or even worse Yao gets knocked unconscious or injured? Ron single handedly cleaned up this series. Shane getting kneed in the face by Kobe was a mere minor blip in national sports news but you'll (as well as the league officials) be seeing and hearing about Kobe's elbows to Ron's neck. WHAT RON DID WAS MUCH BIGGER THAN ONE GAME. He may have saved this series for us.
You think refs have eyes in the back of their heads and can see every action by every player every second? It's a no brainer Kobe will go for more cheap shots when the refs aren't looking or attempt to "hide" his cheap shots at the right moments so he never gets called for it
You seem to want Ron to be something he isn't. Ron is a lion and this team needs a lion. You rely on the lion to kill everything in front of him. Sometimes it's prey, sometimes it's a trap, and sometimes it's a bigger lion... either way that's what a lion does. You don't try to teach the lion manners. You unleash him and hope he can avoid the trap while he kills everything in sight, including the bigger lion. Yeah... it's late.
You don't think what Yao did was standing up for himself and for the team? He refused to get bully like that and let the lakers to keep elbowing and doing all these sly dirty shots at the rockets. You don't think we were in the laker's head also? Why would Fisher land that big blow on scola, if we were not? There was no dirty intent on Ron when he confronted that elbow by kobe. TNT show with Barkley and Kenny said it clearly that was not an ejection. Not only that but he did get a few things out that needed to be said. The dirty shot he took on battier on game 1. And also on how Kobe kept slapping his hand when he's allowed to have one hand on kobe. Ron did what he needed to and we wouldn't even be close in the game if it weren't for his performance.
I hear you. But what's the point of telling Kobe anything? Do you think Kobe has a conscience? Kobe believes in nothing but winning. His whole career and life have been about exploiting, defeating, and not giving a damn about anybody or anything but himself. The way you avenge yourself on such a man is to end his season. Talking to him only makes him laugh.
Man, I have thoroughly enjoyed watching the last two games. From Battier bleeding, to Yao coming back from injury to Scola being tackled to the Kobe/Artest fiasco. To me this is what playoff basketball is about. If I was a player in game 1 of this series I would choose to be Battier with blood spilling out, getting stitches and smiling my way to victory.
This thread is weak! The game must be lost cause NBA doesn't want Rockets win 2 games in LA . The referee sucks in game 2. They sucked in Game 1. Luckily, Shane got his bloody face which really give much pressure to the referees. Today , They just help the Lakers with no fear. We need someone stand out and speak out . The fans needs to watch fair baksetball game, not the superstar basketball.
Exactly! Agree with Will. You get back at Kobe by kicking him out of the playoffs, not by getting yourself kicked out of a game when the game is on the line.
