Thug alert: keep your eyes open tonight, Blazers
This is is a story of what went on Monday night in Denver with Nuggets forward Kenyon Martin, who is known for this kind of junk. This is what Kings’ owner Joe Maloof thought of a play Martin made on Spencer Hawes:
”That was thuggery,” Maloof said, “and you can quote me on that. Kenyon Martin wasn’t trying to block the shot. He went right at Spencer when he was running full speed and at the [height] of his jump, when he was most vulnerable,” according to the report.
“Completely unnecessary. The Nuggets might not want to hear this, but there was no excuse for that, and he [Martin] needs to apologize to Spencer and our organization. That just wasn’t right,” Maloof added, according to the Bee. When asked about the play, Martin shook his head and said it warranted a foul, not a flagrant 1, according to the report.
Just be careful around this guy, with the playoffs looming. I think he likes hurting people.
NBA, Trail Blazers | Dwight Jaynes | April 15, 2009
Denver Nuggets, Joe Maloof, Kenyon Martin, Portland Trail Blazers, Sacramento Kings, Spencer Hawes
If he hits anyone Joel will take his sorry ass out. Problem solved. Martin probably won’t play though. He’s been hurt.
I didnt see the play, but here’s what I dont get…
The league won’t even let two guys talk trash to each other (example, Joel and Boozer get tossed a couple weeks ago), but they seem very reluctant to punish anyone for making dangerous hard fouls.
So, let me get this straight. You can potentially injure a guy with an intentional, unnecessary foul and nothing happens, but if you talk trash you get sent to the locker room. Seems downright stupid.
Player safety should be the most important issue and the league needs to start giving out harsh punishment for intentional fouls that are unnecessary and harm the other player, i.e. Rudy/Ariza and now Martin/Hawes.
Or…let the other team retaliate and throw down. I would be fine with Martin’s hard foul if one of the Kings were able to walk over and clock him without getting suspending for half the season.
There has to be some realistic balance here but once again the league appears to be clueless.
Marc you make an excellent point. I remember back in the day of our only championship Maurice Lucas punched someone (I cant remember who) right in the face and didn’t receive a suspension, just a $50 fine.
If the NBA does not want to protect players who are in vunerable spots, that I think the team should be allowed to retaliate. If you’re going to throw players out of a game for being 10 feet away from each other talking smack, maybe you should throw out the guy who just runs into someone without regard for their safety. I know it’s not pee wee basketball and hard fouls are part of the game, but this is seriously getting ridiculous.
If the NBA doesn’t want to protect players in the air, I think each team should have an enforcer like Hockey. Then once a situation breaks out, send in your enforcer. Maybe that would incite some rule changes in the NBA. I wouldn’t mind seeing Michael Ruffin start a game just to send a message