To you guys who defend Ariza: Let's assume it's you on a break away jumping in the air toward the basket when you are most vulnerable. How do you feel if I go for the ball with my whole arm swinging with full force without any thought that I may hit you in the head, neck or face? It's ok because I go for the ball, right? If it puts you in the hospital or ends your career in the process, it's just your bad luck, correct?
So now the standard defense for against a breakaway dunk is to swipe as hard as you can up high. If it end Kobe's career, so be it. Um ... NBA, you should protect your players.
Look, it doesn't matter what the intent WAS. The fact is Ariza caused bodily harm to Fernandez, and he should get a suspension for it. If there was ill intent, then the penalty should be increased. If I was driving a car and accidentally runs over Obama and cripples him for life, I would expect to be serving a jail sentence, evil intent or no. Same thing here. Innocent until proven guilty? Ariza is already guilty, guilty of sending Fernandez to the hospital. How hard is that to understand And yeah, the fact that Odom is the one serving a suspension and not Ariza after all this proves that Stu Jackson should be shot. He's as stupid as David Stern is smart.
How can you prove that? Cause he happened to get close to the ball AFTER knocking him in the head? Saying he had no intent or it wasn't a "frustration foul" is just as silly as saying he definitely did have intent. It can't be proven. However, here is what we do know for a fact. In a game that was already over, Ariza made a wild, careless, and dangerous swing to stop an open breakaway. Hit the guy over the head from behind causing him to go off balance and then tangling arms up with him to make him parallel with the ground and causing him to basically fall directly on his lung. That is the only fact we know, and in my opinion is enough to warrant a one game suspension. If intent was able to be totally proven, then yes it should have been even much worse than that.
I'll one up you. Everyone should go for blocks and steals w/ closed fists now. Instead of swatting blocks, players should go for punching the ball out of peoples' hands. Instead of reaching in on a dribble, go for an uppercut punch on the ball. What can go wrong? As long as you're making a play on the ball, recklessness is ok.
What, accidents have never happened in this world? Hey, I'm not Ariza fan by any means, nor am I in favor of getting really rough on the court. The way I see it, he meant to make a play on the ball and unfortunately his arm hit him on the head. Perhaps he could of thought things through, but when you are in the heat of the moment, sometimes you just don't have good judgment. It doesn't make you a bad human but sometimes it causes an accident that could potentially hurt someone else. I know an I'm sorry isn't enough. But to penalize him for just playing the game of basketball is silly. I don't believe he had any bad intentions. The laws of physics just worked against Rudy. He was going full speed, jumping off of one foot, going for the dunk with two hands while Ariza was running at full speed trying to make a play at ball. I'm sorry, but I don't think Ariza had any intent to hurt him. If he really meant to make a statement foul he definitely would have gone about it differently. He could of tackled Rudy in mid air, like I remember Posey doing a few years back in the playoffs. But he just came from behind and attempted to make a block.
Of course accidents happen, that is why you try your best not to do things that has a good chance to cause the accident. You have not answered my question? What if this happens to you? Or better yet, tell us where you play ball, we can go there to see how you like it when we go for the ball and accidentally hurt you. Not having good judgement is not an excuse. No one said he was a bad human. We only said that he screwed up, he should be penalized for it. If not, people would accidentally kill other people all the time Don't say people are silly becuase they have better sense about what is right and wrong than you. If you play basketball at all, you would know how vulnerable a person is when he goes up for the basket. You try to play defense the best you can but you have to be mindful not to hurt the guy and hope everyone else has the same sense when it is your turn to go to the basket. Those that forget need to be reminded that it is a no-no. Hence a suspension of some kind. It's not like we deem him a bad human being and ban him from basketball for life or put him in jail. It's just a few games suspension for crying out loud.
I think I answered your question, but perhaps I should be more direct than having you read between the lines. When I play basketball I know there is always a risk. I have had nasty falls myself. One time, I attacked the paint with the two biggest guys on the team coming at me and I ended up hurting my elbow pretty bad because I took an ugly fall. I wasn't mad, I wasn't bothered. I knew what the risk was and unfortunately things didn't turn out as I hoped (a made basket). All the time. I think you are reaching. We are talking about an accident on the basketball court. **** happens. We can agree to disagree but fact is he made a play on the ball, not on Rudy. I'm not calling people silly, I'm calling the fact of suspending him silly, so please, try to better understand my words. Yes, I am mindful and a lot of times I back up from the play however, this doesn't mean that I haven't had my few accidents in life. Like I said **** happens. How many times has Ariza done something like this? No one is perfect and no matter how you try to minimize the situation from happening, at times it will happen. Sometimes it was out your control. Remember as humans we sometimes don't think as well and do stuff that we regret. I don't think Ariza regrets going for the block, I think he'd do it again if he had the chance but perhaps be a lot more careful and learn from his mistake. An undeserved suspension. What message are you sending out to the league if you suspend a player for trying to make a play on the ball? Like I said, accidents happen. Of course in this situation the risk was much greater due to the way the play was played out, but heck I doubt Ariza knew he would end up hospitalizing Rudy. Remember Bynum on Gerald Wallace. Now that was a stupid play. His dumbass ran into Gerald on purpose with his shoulder to prevent the dunk. There was no play on the ball, but on the player himself.
Sounds like the right thing was done to me. Odom out b/c of the rules. Further review of the Ariza foul shows it was a play on the ball.
Have you not looked at the replay? I've watched this over and over and you could tell he clearly was trying to go for the ball. PLUS: Like I said accidents happen.
http://blog.oregonlive.com/behindblazersbeat/2009/03/lakers_ariza_speaks_about_fern.html Oops, forgot about link.
Seen it a few times, and not enough to say he was clearly just going for the ball, and was not motivated in any way by frustration.
Let me try to get thru 1 more time. 1) Going for the ball is only 1 of the requirements. Going for the ball does not mean you have a license to go for the guy's head as well. 2) Even when you make an attempt at the ball but if you hit someone hard, accident or not, you ought to be penalized for it. Why is it so hard for you to understand?
Because you're throwing out your own rules. It's not written like that. Just because you believe that's how it should be written doesn't mean it is. He made an attempt for the ball, he didn't follow through on the player--he swung for the ball and hit the player in the meantime. After the initial hit, there was no follow through or anything else...but it knocked him off balance and caused a horrible fall. If Ariza did that and then came down through Rudy's body..different story. If he did that while undercutting Rudy, different story. But none of that happened.. he went for the ball and hit the guy in the process. Yes, you are responsible for accidents. He got called for a flagrant foul, as well he should have. When people play the game of basketball, they realize it's physical. When they go up on the break and are being chased, they know contact is possible. They know injuries and falls happen. Stop comparing this to accidentally killing people. People are not signing off on being killed by walking around in daily life. They are not saying that life is physical and death may occur at any moment due to someone's actions upon you. You said "how would you like it if it happened to you". Well, if you came out and made sure it happened to me, that would be intentional and would warrant a suspension. The whole deal here is that it wasn't intentional. You seem to agree with that since you say "even though it's an accident, he still should be suspended because it was a hard hit".
I'm with the ppl that say Ariza didn't intentionally foul and it was the right call for him not to be suspended.
From now on, shotblockers should use extra force and follow through when blocking shots. As long as they are going for the ball, they should also try to break the shooter's nose or give the shooter at least a minor concussion. They should use as much force as humanly possible, not just enough to block the shot. The bottom line is that as long as you are making a play on the ball, anything else that happens during the process of blocking a shot is irrelevant. Use extra force and try to inflict some pain. No need to worry. There won't be any punishment beyond getting a flagrant foul. By the way, did they take back the Flagrant 2 on Ariza? Since he didn't do anything wrong and was just playing the ball, that must have been the wrong call. It should have been nothing more than a standard personal foul.
One more argument: there's a reason the NFL has a helmet-to-helmet rule. There's a limit to making a good play, and that's ultimately for the safety of the players.
