Flagrant Fouls

Marvin Williams just rocked Rajon Rondo. In mid-flight, Rondo got clotheslined. It looked like a mid-air impact between an NFL safety and a WR. Marvin did get a pretty solid piece of the ball, but then got an even bigger piece of Rondo, slamming him into the ground. Stupid play but the Hawks have to be incredibly frustrated. They can't hit the back side of a barn. They had 18 points with just under 10 minutes in the 2nd quarter. With 3:36, the Hawks are down 68-34. Rondo stayed in the game and hit his free throws and is still playing well. Respect.

There have been some other hard fouls in the NBA playoffs like Brendan Haywood's foul (which wasn't that bad) on LeBron and Jason Kidd's flagrant on Jannero Pargo.





As I'm writing this Kevin Garnett just knocked Zaza Pachulia on his ass. It looked a lot like a crack back block in football. I can't believe the commentators were saying it was a clean play. Garnett lined him up, lowered his shoulder, and put his weight behind it. A little retaliation from the Celtics.

I don't have a problem with a rough, physical basketball game, but taking out defenseless players going up for a dunk or layup definitely crosses the line. Hard fouls aren't the biggest problem in the NBA today, nor is letting players (all-stars especially) to travel up and down the court. The worst part of the NBA today is flopping, which is also the worst part of soccer. Floppers take the game out of the players' hands and put it into the often incompetent hands of the referees. For example, in game 4 of the San Antonio Spurs, Tony Parker takes a big dive over Stoudemire's leg, throws the ball out of bounds, and he gets two shots. Are you serious? In the 1500s, the conquistadores brought smallpox and other diseases to the new world, infecting the entire Aztec empire. Foreigners like Manu Ginobili, Tony Parker, Pau Gasol, and others have brought the worst aspect of the great game of soccer to the NBA. Foreign players aren't bad for the game. Actually, several of them are better than American players. But flopping ruins the game. Here's another video to an already media-rich post: