Nice post, rook. Salad for you! What I liked about the play? After it happens, Battier hops up and starts strolling back towards the free throw line. Doesn't even glance at Odom. Probably already thinking about the next sequence of plays and what they are going to do on offense. Cool as a cucumber.
So now taking a charge is dangerous and reckless. Why doesnt he write an article about the guy throwing elbows at people's throats.
The refs know Shane too. He has a rep for getting those charge calls. He has been doing it for years and typically it's Shane taking the brunt of the contact. Altought I sorta understand Durvasa on the saftey issue, however If you can't take charges(pretty much the only time you can touch a guy nowadays) in this league games would be 150-160 every night.
Odom would not have hurt himself if he wouldn't have tried to over extend himself to dunk on Battier. He knew Battier was coming - he was reaching out thinking he was going to posterize Battier and only realized after contact he was too far away from the basket. If he had just tried to take the contact and make a lay in, he wouldn't have landed so hard. Certainly Battier's play to take a charge was a fair attempt the draw the charge. The awkward landing part had everything to do with Odom's poor decision to go over and through Battier.
this was a close call. it could go either way. the ref called it before Odom fell into the ground. if it was called late, it could have been a blocking foul.
Odom jumped way to early. Seemed like he wasn't expecting ANY resistance. When Battier got in position, Odom took a chance and put himself in a vulnerable position. Most other other people commit that type of offensive foul plow right through the person taking the charge. Odom is big enough to do that. His mistake was trying to avoid contact and twisting his body in the air. His own fault.
That idiot also proclaimed this before the game. RoundCast: Mavs and Rockets Are Done http://nba.fanhouse.com/2009/05/10/roundcast-mavs-and-rockets-are-done/
If you want to blame somebody, blame the fact that the league usually rewards the offensive player putting his head down and slamming into a defender with a blocking foul. 9/10 times when there is contact even close to that its a blocking foul. You can't take away the 10% of the time the defender has hit feet set.
If the roles were reversed and Odom had done this to Scola. This board woudl be in an uproar calling for his suspension and making conspiracy comments about how Stern wants the Lakers to be in the Finals. I'm as big of a Rockets fan as anyone, but I really don't see how they called that a Charge. He moved into position late and you could argue that he wasn't set. Just call it how you see it and try and drop the bias, guys, come on.
1. Scola would never jump that high. 2. In this league, in a way(like it or not) you earn calls with your play and repore with the refs through the year. We have seen Shane has been getting charge calls like that all season long.The refs stayed consistent for once. It's Shane Batter read your damn scouting report Odom. 3.Look for the picture posted where Shane is about 3 feet in front of Odom with his feet set. Charge Charge Charge ALL DAY.
Being alive is dangerous because there is always that possibility that you could get hurt or die. So if everybody just stopped living nobody would die or get hurt.
I think you're wrong on multiple counts. First, this was a charge. As many people have said, INCLUDING this idiotic journalist himself, this is a legal play that was properly called. Second, if the roles were reversed, the board wouldn't be in an uproar. In Game 1, Yao was injured in a similarly legal play by Kobe, where, certainly, there were some people upset and those who would have been more-so had Yao been out due to that injury, but on the whole, it was recognized as an accident. As to some of the other comments, I think those who have noted Lamar's random twisting are on point here. Thousands of charges are drawn in the NBA every year...most like this, where there is contact, where it involves on the fly decisions, etc. the one thing you almost never see is the offensive player jump, initiate contact, twist wildly in mid air, and land on the court on his back for no apparent reason. I'm no physicist, but something tells me that the injury is way more Odom's fault (from deciding when and where to jump from to random in the air twisting) than Battier's. Lamar Odom...is he reckless?
Thats the rules, absolutely no sportscaster considered it NOT an offensive foul, even the biased ones. Odom did take off too far. If Battier tried to go after him in the air and hit his arm, Odom could have still fell. But I thought maybe a no-call would have been better. They both converged to the same spot around the same time. Also, I think its people deep down thinking what is a blocking foul by definition? Either Battier got in position or he blocked him. Its a dangerous situation, might could use more looking into. But none of it malicious and reckless.
