http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/recap?gameId=230316005 CLEVELAND (AP) -- Ricky Davis wanted to give himself a triple-double by shooting at the wrong basket, leaving Jerry Sloan fuming. Ricky Davis finished one rebound short of his first triple-double in the Cavs' win. Davis had 28 points, a career-high 12 assists and missed his first career triple-double by one rebound as the Cleveland Cavaliers snapped a seven-game losing streak with a 122-95 victory over the Utah Jazz on Sunday. After Utah's Scott Padgett scored with six seconds left, Davis took an inbounds pass and was ready to attempt a shot at the wrong basket to get his 10th rebound. DeShawn Stevenson wrapped his arms around Davis before the attempt and was whistled for a foul. Davis made two free throws to complete the scoring. "He was trying to embarrass us, and that's not how the game should be played,'' Sloan said. "This is not schoolyard basketball,'' the Utah coach said. "Let him try to get it when the game means something. I was proud of DeShawn and I would have knocked him down harder. They can put me in jail for saying that, but that's the way it is.'' Davis said his teammates yelled out that he needed one more rebound. "They should be mad,'' Davis said. "Any team that gets beat that bad shouldn't be happy. But I wouldn't do it again. I just wouldn't. I'd probably me mad, too, losing by 20.'' Wow, he so made my list of players I currently dislike. Just horrible. I could've forgiven him for the shady shot trying to get his triple double, but that quite by him is just outrageous. What a jackass.
Anoyone remeber a similar situation that occured a few years ago where someone need one more assist for the triple double. If I remember correctly the guy called a timeout with a few seconds left and their team had a sizable lead. The opposing team just stood on the side of the court and didnt even defend him. I also think that the pistons were on the teams involved. Anoyone know anything else about this it is really annoying me that I cant remember.
I remember watching that game, but couldn't remember the details until they replayed it on ESPN2 last night. I missed the player who got the triple double, but it was Magic vs Pistons. Magic were up big and called a timeout with little time left to run a play. Doug Collins was PO'ed and called his team off the court to let the guy assist on a layup.
It Darrell Armstrong (Magic) and the coach was Doug Collins. Ricky Davis is very arrogant and immature, but he is a player. He's like Michael Irvin, he may be arrogant, but you have to respect his ability and the fact he plays hard on such a lousy team.
I saw both incidents. Ricky Davis is a good player. But terrible. Steve Francis would never have done that. But I don't think what Ricky Davis was as worse as the PISTONS GAME ONE. THAT WAS RIDICULOUS. That guy must have been bashed terribly. I can't believe his teammates helped him out in it too........
darrell armstrong!? oh geesh i hope your joking it wuz anthony bowie... oh and i think it was funny, there 2 professional in the game today... let him have some fun in a game that doesnt mean anything... It wasn't that he had no class... its just the same as kobe ball hogging down the stretch of a game so he can get 50, why isnt he "Disrespecting the game" its stupid... good job ricky davis... hah, tryed 2 shoot on the other teams goal then he got the rebound, ha ha ha
I dont think it was Darell Armstrong, but Anthony Bowie who did it. And I could care less. These guys will probably never be close to triple double again. So I say let them do what they have to do. Jerry Sloan needs to quit b****ing like the whiner he is. I'm sure there are some bigger problems in Utah he can worry about.
You beat me to it. I was indeed Anything Bowie and not Darrell Armstrong. As far as Ricky Davis goes, you can't spell class without ass.
Hasn't Steve actually taken himself out of the game when he was close to a triple double? This was his rookie year I think.
Difference between Steve and Davis is that one is a superstar, while the other is a decent player on the worst team in the league. Steve will get or be close to many triple doubles throughout his career. He doesn't care if he misses one here and there. Ricky will barely get any or be even close again any time soon. Thats why I think the poor guy should be able to do what he has to do to get his triple double. Besides, I would rather align myself with Lucifer and his minions then Jerry ****ing Sloan.
The triple double is the most overrated "stat" in basketball. So, is 10 assists really that much better than 9 assists? Unless you can get triple doubles on a consistent basis like Oscar Robertson or Magic, then they're pretty much useless...
In my opinion who really cares. They can either cheat in the flow of the game (David Robinson and Michael Cage) or they can cheat openly. It doesn't matter too much to me. It's for the fans as much as the player. That being said, why would a player want the kind of heat generated by doing that. It's not worth it. You end up feelig worse about it than the gratification received from it. It's a no win situation.
I agree with Sloan that it was a bit bush to do that, but it wasn't that big of a deal. Nothing to be complaining about. However, my respect for Stevenson just went up ten-fold for fouling the guy to make sure he didn't get it. That has to be just about the classiest foul I've ever heard of.
Man...I saw what happened in that Cavs vs. Jazz game. That was probably the most pathetic thing I've ever seen in any 'team' sport. What was he thinking? For all the people on this board that think Mobley and Francis are selfish, that is a wrong assumption. Davis is a joke. Jerry Sloan said something like, 'i'd knock him on his ass too' Actually I like Jerry Sloan, he brings some toughness to the table.
It's one thing to fire up a shot to get a rebound. It's another to do it on the OPPONENT'S GOAL. What a sackless piece of $hit. It's just so sad that he is a loser on a loser team.
I have to give him credit for ingenuity though, most players wouldn't have thought about putting up the shot on the other goal to get the rebound. That's pretty clever. And there's nothing Ricky Davis would've done that could've embarassed the Jazz more than their own play did that night.
Here's another article on this: http://espn.go.com/nba/columns/aldridge_david/1525101.html Davis should be punished for showing up Jazz -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- By David Aldridge Special to ESPN.com If the Cleveland Cavaliers don't have the courage to suspend Ricky Davis, the league should. But the Cavs should do it. There is excess, there is hubris and then there is what Davis did Sunday against the Jazz. A self-respecting eighth-grader wouldn't have pulled what Davis tried to do -- shoot at his own basket in the waning seconds of a blowout win over Utah so that he could get a 10th rebound and an ill-gained first career triple-double. This was wrong on so many levels, it's hard to list them all. But we will try. First, any statistical achievement is only noteworthy in the context of the game being played. If your last basket gets you 50 points -- and also wins the game -- the 50 is meaningful. And it's OK to score 50 if your team loses, as long as those 50 were scored during an honest attempt to win. That's why Kobe Bryant's streak of scoring 40 points started to smell a little toward the end, when it seemed obvious he was firing up rocks just to keep it going. In Davis's case, there were six seconds left in a game where the Cavs were up by 25. If Davis had shot at Utah's basket on purpose, and missed, it would have merely been bush league. To shoot at his own basket unveils a whole new level of bush previously undiscovered by the world's top archaeologists. Second, the Cavs have been fighting the perception all year that this season has been nothing but a sham, a transparent attempt to dump games in order to secure LeBron James in the lottery. They insist that that is not the case. It is, to me, therefore terribly inconsistent to do nothing when one of your players commits a sin like this. It is tantamount to saying that the players are in charge and can do anything they want. Which, come to think of it, is exactly what people around the league have been saying about Cleveland for much of the season. Third, Davis's action was a slap in the face to those who have proceeded him, to the Russells and Chamberlains and Robertsons and Magics and Birds and Jordans. It wasn't me, but Utah's 21-year-old guard, DeShawn Stevenson who quite eloquently pointed this out after the game. "There's too many people who have done too much for this sport to act like that," said Stevenson, who blasted Davis with a cross-body block after Davis's act. "This is the NBA, and you've got to be professional, and that's not professional. Yes, I think it was disrespect to the game and disrespect to me. You've got little kids looking up to him and to see him do that isn't right." Out of the mouths of babes ... (Of course, Jerry Sloan had his own adult take. "DeShawn fouled him, and I would have fouled him, too," Sloan said afterward. "I would have knocked him on his ass." God, I wish time travel was possible and Davis had tried that when Sloan was playing, or Norm Van Lier, or my ESPN colleague Fred Carter, or John Brisker.) Fourth, Davis's action showed a lack of knowledge of the rules. Rule 5, Section 1 of the league's official rules states clearly, "It is a violation for a player to attempt a field goal at an opponent's basket. The opposing team will be awarded the ball at the free throw line extended." I'm not saying James or any other player should have such minutae committed to memory, but they should have a sense, after tens of thousands of hours of playing ball, of what's right and what's wrong. By the way, this is the same guy who, just five days ago, fouled Miami's Mike James with four-tenths of a second left, in a 75-all game, with James fading away and shooting a desperation three. James hit two of the three free throws, and the Heat won 77-75. The league should step in, if only to right a wrong it committed a few years ago in a similar circumstance. In 1996, the Magic were in the process of blowing out Detroit, 113-91, when guard Anthony Bowie was one assist shy of a triple-double. But Orlando called a timeout with 1.4 seconds left so that it could set up one more play. Detroit's coach at the time, Doug Collins, ordered his team not to guard the play at all so that Bowie could get his gift assist and phony triple. When Bowie tapped the ball to a teammate, who then scored, there were three-tenths of a second left. But a disgusted Collins and his team were already walking off the floor, opting not to extend the charade any further. But it was Collins that got fined $5,000 for "unsportsmanlike conduct." The league has a second chance to get it right this time. I still hope the Cavs take care of this themselves. It is Davis, not Stevenson, not Sloan, who committed the unsportsmanlike act here. It is Davis who made the hard work of an NBA player into folly. It is Davis who needs to be shown that there are lines that just can't be crossed once you cross the lines and go onto the floor. Not because he's a bad kid, but because he's a young one, and he needs somebody to show him, by barring him from playing what a terrible thing he did. There are lots of adults in the Cleveland front office. Time for them to stand up and be counted. David Aldridge, who covers the NBA for ESPN, is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.
hey, u guys think if he is 1 assist short instead of 1 rebound short, will he throw an ally U for the other team? hahahahahah
