ESPN.com: Bryant "blown away" by one game suspension

I am not a kobe fan- heck if that were Tmac, I really dont think it was intentional- a 1 game suspension for that, that is just stupid.

So if they can judge these kind of things a day after the game is over- will they give a do-over calls that were not correct and happen to be game changing ( eg a 6 th foul)

 

I saw it live, and I'm no Kobe apologist. I can appreciate his game, but I don't particularly like him or the Lakers. Just looking at it objectively.. no one else has ever been suspended for contact of this type as far as I can remember back..

 

I have never liked Kobe but this suspension is ridiculous. So now the NBA suspends players for what may or may not be an accidental arm to the face? I watched the video repeatedly and I'm not convinced either way but to start comparing plays like this to throwing a punch (same suspension) is stupid.

 

where were all the suspensions for bruce bowen taking people's ankles out? if we can't judge that as intentional, how are we judging this to be, even though kobe does it almost every time someone strips the ball from him to try and draw a foul. to think he transitioned from taking the game-winning shot to aiming right at ginobili's face while manu was behind him, and then back to catching the ball and shooting while in the air all in about 1 second seems kind of far-fetched.

 

Ginobli clearly jumped into Bryant's elbow with his face.

 

for those of u saying it was unintentional,

here's a typical Kobe shot:
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notice the extention on his arms and the follow up until the ball goes in despite shooting a tough fade away. Kobe ALWAYS extends his arms after the shot TO THE FRONT unlike Tmac and Ray Allen who pull their hands back quickly. now, watch the exact same motion on the Ginobili play, he extends them for the follow up, then he kinda swings them back quicky with lateral extention to hit SOMEBODY, and it happened to be Ginobili. so yes guys, it's 100% intentional. this a logical analysis without considering my view on Kobe.

here's the play again:
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Kobe's usual shooting motion ENDS @ the 3 seconds mark, then, after realizing that his shot is blocked, he INTENTIONALLY swings his arms back violently to "draw a foul" and hurt someone..

 

it looked to me like his right foot hit manu's leg and it kinda threw him off balance. the arm being thrown out looks like a natural reaction to me.

 

it's not a shot where someone stripped the ball. he always flings his arms out like he did when someone strips/fouls him to try to make it look like a foul. this isn't anything new, it's just that the person is usually in front of him so he hits nothing. you don't get blocked from the side very often.

 

The debate rages on. It's JFK, Zapruder film analysis time.

 

Clearly intentional.

 

but if it's intentional to hold someone off from getting the ball in a split-second, no big deal.

 

exactly, it just looks too awkward and fast to look like he did it out of anger, looked more like a natural reaction than a taste for blood. i'd equate it to most of deke's elbows. he uses his elbows to clear everyone away from him while grabbing rebounds, if he hits someone with them then his action was still intentional but he did not swing them with intent to knock someone out. kobe went up from the shot, got blocked and maybe even body contact mid-air (hand to back of the head/neck), at this time kobe doesn't even look toward any person, his eyes are fixated on the ball which is straight above him, he likely did not know who he hit or tried to throw off him and it just happened to be ginobili's grill.

my verdict is YES he did intend to throw his arm out NO he did not intend to take down ginobili with the arm but rather push off *whoever* made the block (i believe he did not see ginobili throughout the whole play he just knew *someone* blocked him and was near) that part was an accident. not worth the suspension imo, and i h8 kobe as a person.

 

The fact that we are even having a discussion about whether or not it was intentional should tell us no disciplinary action necessary.

 

Great, the lakers lost to the knicks......good for rockets... thank you kobe for your oscar winning innocent hit in the face act!!!

 

Agreed. The suspension served it's purpose because no way the Lakers would have lost tonight with Kobe. I have no sympathy for them but that was a tough loss to a Knicks team they obviously would beat.

 

Kobe is the Rocket's Player of the Game tonight. He gets a free dinner at Landry's from Bill Worrell and Clyde Drexler. We are one game up on the Lakers finally.

 

I am all for a Rox and Spurs matchup in the playoffs.

I don't know what is wrong with Lakers. Maybe they do overachieve a little bit in the first half of the season. Players are showing a lot of inexperience. They are at least one or two seasons away from contending again.

There are really no darkhorses in the playoffs. Mavs, Suns, Spurs and Rox are the big 4. Western conf. champion will be one of them, without a doubt.

 

With the way Rox are beating those garbage teams, the rest of their schedule the season plus the inconsistency of this Lakers team, it is just a matter of time Rox is ahead of them.

After all-star game, I expect Rox lead at least 6-7 games ahead of Lakers and firmly stay at the 5th seat. They can even catch Spurs at the fourth seat at the end of the season.

Playoffs will have Rox vs Spurs. What a great series it will be! It is Knicks vs Heat all over again. Whichever scores 80pts first wins!

 

LMAO. I love statement like this. So do you think there's any way the lakers with Kobe would lose games against teams like Gizzs or Bobcats or Hornets (w/o their top players)?