Jesus Christ, this is some bull****. It was a snap reflex on a very physical play by a guy who has virtually no history of cheap shots. I don't know if the Rockets can actually formally appeal this but they should be raising as much of a stink about it as their vocal cords will allow. This is way too drastic of a punishment for a team in the middle of fighting for playoff seeding, where every game is important.
Rules are rules. Situation and circumstance doesn't matter as there is ZERO scenario where "kicking" below the belt is warranted. We can argue all we want about whether or not it was provoked by LBJ, but the moment Harden's foot extended towards that area, he broke a rule and needed to be penalized. Lessening punishment because a team happens to be in a playoffs race is just bull****. If this happened the other way around, you would be calling "Bloody murder!" until LBJ got a suspension.
Was always curious about this phrase so I finally Googled it (hey I'm about to get laid off, why even pretend I'm working???) Spoiler http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chip_on_shoulder
Lol....reflex kick. It's still a kick. If you get caught stealing you will still be punished, even if you were starving.
Agreed on all your points. I was really impressed by the defense on Lebron as well. Although usually Lebron isn't going to be this inefficient (and terrible from the line), it is nice to see a team without Howard still slow down the best SF in the game.
Can I just say, I am really disappointed in the delay and lack of response from our Taiwanese News friends who animate stuff like this. How is there not an animation yet with The Beard kicking The King in the jewels?! They have Marshawn Lynch grabbin his junk during the Super Bowl! Come on Taiwan! TURN UP!
I don't think Lebron was actually kicked in the groin. It was near it, but if you get kicked in the junk and it actually connects the expected reaction would be considerably stronger. To me it just looked like it hit lebron in the thigh and pushed him backwards and he probably exaggerated that based on the half second delay to his stumble. He didn't double over like someone who got hit in the groin typically would. It's just odd to make it a suspension considering the kick was only a flagrant 1, the refs didn't think it warranted an ejection at the time and it wasn't something they missed. I imagine Beverly suffered more from Lebron pushing him back down to the floor with his strength and weight, than Lebron did from that kick.
What do you think the response would be, if they kicked out Harden in that game and the cavs beat houston, which would have been very likely? Calls do get upgraded... Refs aren't perfect. Sometimes they make mistakes and sometimes they save their own ass and let the league deal with it.
