It was a Flagrant. There is no place for that play in today's NBA. Period. Clyde was right, but that was then and this is now (which Clyde, and I, is not).
i only saw briefly the play yesterday does anyone have the video clip for it? dmason...the dude is dirty.......
How many games do we have left against these scrubs? They've beaten us twice. I think we have one on ABC on Sunday. We can give them some payback on their own court, there is no excuse for us to lose against the Hornets.
Hard foul, but nowhere near a flagrant. He didn't clothesline him, undercut him, go anywhere near the head, or tackle him in mid-air. He clearly went for the ball and there was body contact. Nothing new, it happens all the time in the NBA.
We have a hard matchup problem with the Hornets. They beat us twice last season I think. PAul is a very good point guard and their big men are very quick. Byron Scott is doing agood job coaching that team-they are only going to get better. We need to beat them every time.
Mason fouled TMac in a very similar way Nate Robinson fouled Yao in one of the Rockets-Knicks games. They both went after the ball with brute force, but neither had any slightest concern of avoiding heavy body contact as a result of the aggressive defense. It could be subjectively assessed a flagrant foul because thuggish actions like these tend to lead to injury to the player on offense because he has no mechanism of protecting himself from hard foul.
I don't think it was dirty at all. The whole league knows that if you're going to stand any chance at guarding T-Mac you have to be aggressive and physical. Desmond Mason was doing just that, which is probably no less than his coach asked him to do.
well, to be aggressive doesn't mean you gonna hurt the offensive players, especially during those offensive players losing their balances. Those animal behavior from **** mason just proved how animal minded he was.
right, that's the way JR Smith got messed up, and that's the reason the Knicks and Nuggets players got suspended. stupid animals
The Hornets are somewhat similar to the Wolves in our case. They're a mediocre team (as of now, since the Hornets had a hot start) but they present a huge matchup problem for us, even when Yao is in, and they seem to have our number. That and the Rockets never seem to try against the Wolves or Hornets and I have no reason as to why that is. It's OK it's one game. Let's get em next time.
yes he was going for the ball but notice he was also intentional going for some hard contact. There was no chance of a clean block and he didn't care. We should have got one of our scrub players try to take Chris Paul out when he does that short jumper in the lane or a layup.
Howard and Rafer were on the court when that happened. Rafer had to have remembered that. Not hard to forget your 7'-6" center getting thrown onto the court. To make more of it than it should be, Mason's block on McGrady comes off similar to how Yao blocked Mason (or what Mason thought it was like in his own head). Was there a payback motive by Mason? Unlikely or he'd really have too good a memory of things, and Yao wasn't on the court this time. Even though it seems its just against the Rockets it all boils down to him being just a punk
I thought it was just a tough minded basketball. If you're trying to score near the basket, you have to take punishment. It's always being a part of the game. You don't intentially hurt some one, but how many times have you heard the announcers talk about how you need to protect the paint and give people second thoughts of going in there? I wish the league would be more like it was in the mid-90's, tough physical basket ball. Was it a flagrant? maybe. But he went for the ball, it was a hard foul, but he went for the ball. With the rules in place, it already favors the offensive player, no need to add the burden of worrying about opposing player's health on the defense. Unlike Bowen's sticking the feet under some, the intent is to cause pain, but not necessarily injury to the opposing player.
If only we had Bob Sura... he'd slam Desmond Mason like he did Josh Howard. BTW anyone has that clip of Sura hard foul on Josh Howard?! Rafer Alston has guts. Demond Mason must out weigh Rafer by at least 50 lbs.
What did the refs end up calling after the play? I remember not being satisfied with the call. Seems like we always get the short end of the stick in these type of situations even though we're the "nice" guys. Any time the zebras stop play to talk it over, I never have a good feeling.....
it was really a good play and if mcgrady would have went up strong it wouldnt have looked as bad. T-Mac didn't explode and hind of finessed it that why it was blocked like that.
It was dirty because he hit a guy hard while he was in the air, which is dangerous. We're lucky he didn't come down harder. Anyone can get injured when they are hit in the air. I consider it similar to an undercut like Karl Malone liked to do and usually got away with. Some plays are dirty, but not something you call on the court. Alston wasn't smart. He should have saved revenge on Mason for some point in the game when the refs forgot and weren't looking (like Clyde described). The only thing mouthing off accomplished was getting Alston off the court.
