[Chron]Rockets appeals tech foul on Artest, also on Howard's trip on Yao

I hope the technical gets rescinded. What a BS call by the refs.

 

Power Slam!!!!
no wait, the world tallest slam.

 

Shane, please put that jacket on eBay!

 

[Chron]Rockets Appeal tech on Artest

Rockets Notes: Team appeals technical on Artest
By JONATHAN FEIGEN Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle
Nov. 1, 2008, 12:29AM

The Rockets are appealing the technical foul that forward Ron Artest received in the fourth quarter against the Mavericks on Thursday, and will also provide the NBA with video of Dallas forward Josh Howard apparently tripping Yao Ming earlier in the game, Rockets general manager Daryl Morey said.

Rockets coach Rick Adelman said he was told Artest received the technical foul for “escalating the situation.” Yao had been fouled by Howard when Artest rushed toward the group of players in the lane, pushed past Howard and Jason Kidd to get to Yao and guide him away from the Mavericks.

“I think that technical foul is unfair for him,” Yao said. “He was just trying to separate us. He wasn’t trying to do something else. That technical foul is a little unfair, in my opinion.

“Ron is a very good guy, very good teammate. This happened once in the preseason. He did the same thing. He ran over to help.”

In New Hampshire, Artest got between Celtics rookie Bill Walker and Yao after a hard foul by Walker.

But Artest said the incident Thursday was just part of the game.

“I saw an elbow,” Artest said. “It happens. A technical foul. No punches thrown. ”
Battier progressing

Rockets forward Shane Battier dramatically stepped up his workload in his rehabilitation of his sore left foot Thursday, though it remains unclear when he could practice for the first time this season.

Battier on Thursday added more quick, reaction cuts, the sort that prevents him from bracing his left ankle to prepare for the stress. Battier plans to continue to add to the workouts as long as his foot responds the next day, but could not predict when he will try to join the Rockets practices.

“This is the first day I did light contact with Shawn Respert (Rockets director of player programs),” Battier said. “I did some quasi-running. I started to get fatigued in the end. That’s why I stopped. I have to build up the strength. The most dangerous thing with a weak ankle is when you start to fatigue the muscles in your ankle. It puts a lot more stress on the joint, and that puts you back to the usual problems.

“The more I do every day, the more it builds up strength to where I can get that muscle strength back. ”

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/bk/bkn/6089422.html

Lock it up if its been posted

 

Good. They definitely should appeal the technical. It was totally bogus, imo.

Also, that bit about Battier doesn't really sound too good.

 

http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?t=156507

 

you could trade battier ,head and Francis and get somebody like Al Harrington and a first rounder. Harrington as a backup sf brings a good off the bench scorer at small foward... But i doubt they do that, i mean if we have artest, isnt battier expendable? Defence off the bench, we need scoring more... But rocket get better with harrington as a 6th man. You can argue that but i don't really see the effectiveness of battier as a 6th man unless you move artest to that position. Do you?

 

I'm not very optimistic that the league will take any action on either.

 

Yao needs to put Howard down hard. Just once. I'm tired of this punk doing things that could end Yao's season and this team's title hopes. This is happening every game against Dallas and it is going to end badly for the Rockets if Howard isn't reminded that isn't the only one who can deliver extra contact. A flagrant 1 on J. Howard on a drive to the basket should do it.

The Rockets can't afford for Ron to be a modern day enforcer for the simple fact that any aggressive behavior on his part gets him 4x the punishment of any other player in the league. For all David Stern's talk of being fair and of giving Ron a second chance it hasn't truly happened.

 

We're not expecting the tech to be rescinded, but the appeal serves two purposes:

1) Chances are repuation had a lot to do with Artest being T'd up and 90% of the time it wouldn't have been called. There is the threshold of accumulation of techinical fouls that does result in a suspension (10?) but at least refs (& league officials) will see that Ron didn't do anything instead of just chuckling at the box score and thinking "that's 1 and counting".

2) The video we've seen is inconclusive, but anyone who saw Yao's elbow hit Howard's face can accurately guess why Howard was up Yao's back on that play. I wouldn't have a problem with Howard trying to retaliate (that's what 75% of this bbs wants to see more of from the Rockets) but you don't go intentionally go at someone's wheels - much less an all-star center - without the league frowning on it.

The argument itself is worth being made merely for the attention it will receive. Not to mention the fact that at the moment Stern probably isn't in love with Howard anyway.

I'm just looking forward to Cuban's comments.

 

duh, what can a player like al harrington brings? 3p shooting? battier is as good as it gets when comes to open 3p.
Defense off the bench is a bad thing? Look at how vital hayes is in the mav game.

What can battier brings off the bench? Battier perform just as well be it starting or coming off the bench. Look at his numbers during his griz days. All the stats is the same.

 

he got it from yahoo and they have a license from getty images to display the images.

 

howard is just a punk. he always seems to go for the legs too. i remember him visibly intentionally trip up bob sura. howard was on the ground, possession started to go the other way and he kicked his legs up and tangled with sura.

 

Whats worse the jacker or anything Craig Sager wears on the air. Its Craig Sager's jr pimp wardrobe in a landslide. I like the jacket too.

 

Good to see the Rockets are at least trying to do something about it, since the league will not act on itself. They probably won't do something now but the Rockets are at least sending a message. I'm also glad Yao sent a message by bumping into Howard and trying to tackle him back, nothing major but just some nice subtle moves to let Josh now what's up.
My only problem with the whole situation is, what if Yao got injured or what if it would've been a star player like Lebron, Duncan, KG? That's why i'm glad we have Artest, a guy who doesn't need the league, Stern or whoever to do anything about. Artest, just like Maxwell used to do, will take care of things himself so i'm glad he bumped Howard a bit. It was definetly not worth a T but we will meet them 3 times more I hope Artest shook hands with Howard to make it seem they were being friendly, meanwhile talking about what he's going to do to him next time

 

Howard only picks on players who he knows won't retaliate. I fondly remember the 05 playoffs when Howard had a flagrant foul on Yao and then next time down the court, Bobby Sura dropped him. Just a punk.

 

The best part of this article.

 

no,like bruce bowen....J.Howard is a bicth

 

Anyone have a video of sura droping howard?

 

^^I agree.