Should Kobe/Fisher be suspended? (Fisher suspended, Kobe not, page 4)

[liam]

I hate the Lakers with a purple passion and of course want the Celtics to have every little advantage possible, but here is what I think should happen:

Fisher - Yes
Kobe - No
Alston - Yes

There.

Fisher - Yes
Kobe - Yes
Alston - Yes
Agree on all 3.

[liam]

Maybe Artest pulls a Tyson next game and bites off Kobe's ear. NBA action is Bamtastic!

[BrickJames]

Kobe shouldn't be suspended.  I dislike the guy, but he is just playing playoff basketball and you can get away with an extra elbow here or there in playoff basketball.  His elbows are different from the Howard elbow and the Artest slap -- h is come while making a play for the ball. 

BTW, the Lakers are playing grittier than they played last year, which will make them harder to beat.  I hate writing the above, because I hate the Lakers.

Seriously?  Not deliberate?  Just like the elbow and knee to the head he threw at Battier on Monday?  That was accidental too, right?

[Cman]

Kobe shouldn't be suspended.  I dislike the guy, but he is just playing playoff basketball and you can get away with an extra elbow here or there in playoff basketball.  His elbows are different from the Howard elbow and the Artest slap -- h is come while making a play for the ball. 

BTW, the Lakers are playing grittier than they played last year, which will make them harder to beat.  I hate writing the above, because I hate the Lakers.

Seriously?  Not deliberate?  Just like the elbow and knee to the head he threw at Battier on Monday?  That was accidental too, right?

No, that is not what I said.  They may well be deliberate and not accidental.  That is not for me to decide.  The point is that it occured during the grey area when making a play for the ball, and so it is up for interpretation.  During regular season the referees (and, so it seems, the league office) call these types of plays "tighter" than they do during the playoffs.  Now that it is the playoffs, the players have more lattitude with what they can get away with... so long as it is in that grey zone.  Dwight Howard's elbow and Rafer Alston's slap did not occur in the grey zone.  The players were nowhere near the ball, the play had ended, and there was clear intention.

[get_banners]

1. the elbow was deliberate - you can tell on a few different replays (from different angles)
2. an elbow to the throat is potentially VERY dangerous
3. kobe has a history of throwing elbows
if the league suspended one of its stars, howard, for a game, they HAVE TO suspend kobe. his play could have been just as dangerous as howard's. fisher's foul was also pretty clearly premeditated, to the point that i think they might suspend him for game 3.
also, somebody raised the kirk/rondo tussle earlier. why wasn't rondo suspended? because it was below the shoulders...he tossed him, but kirk was also not letting go of rondo, and its not clear rajon tried to throw him into the scorer's table. that call can be debated, though...shots above the shoulder pretty much aren't open to debate, at least so far.

[Fafnir]

Kobe shouldn't be suspended.  I dislike the guy, but he is just playing playoff basketball and you can get away with an extra elbow here or there in playoff basketball.  His elbows are different from the Howard elbow and the Artest slap -- h is come while making a play for the ball. 

BTW, the Lakers are playing grittier than they played last year, which will make them harder to beat.  I hate writing the above, because I hate the Lakers.

Seriously?  Not deliberate?  Just like the elbow and knee to the head he threw at Battier on Monday?  That was accidental too, right?

Kobe has a well deserved reputation for throwing elbows, knees, and other shots when in traffic. He's quite good at picking his moments to avoid any suspensions/fouls/penalty for his actions.

Just look at how he claimed his natural shooting motion involved flailing his elbows out into the defenders contesting his shots.

[Cman]

Kobe shouldn't be suspended.  I dislike the guy, but he is just playing playoff basketball and you can get away with an extra elbow here or there in playoff basketball.  His elbows are different from the Howard elbow and the Artest slap -- h is come while making a play for the ball. 

BTW, the Lakers are playing grittier than they played last year, which will make them harder to beat.  I hate writing the above, because I hate the Lakers.

Seriously?  Not deliberate?  Just like the elbow and knee to the head he threw at Battier on Monday?  That was accidental too, right?

Kobe has a well deserved reputation for throwing elbows, knees, and other shots when in traffic. He's quite good at picking his moments to avoid any suspensions/fouls/penalty for his actions.

Just look at how he claimed his natural shooting motion involved flailing his elbows out into the defenders contesting his shots.

Others:

Karl Malone had an "elbows out to the side" motion on a lot of his shots, and that tended to be when a defender's head was in the vicinity.

Chauncey Billups has his "kick the defender" motion which is especially effective around the 3pt line.

[D Dub]

Looks like the league is trying to get Kobe off the hooke by saying he hit him in the chest.

Has anyone seen this replay view?  Every one I have seen looks like he goes up near his throat area.

[Stu]

Looks like the league is trying to get Kobe off the hooke by saying he hit him in the chest.

Has anyone seen this replay view?  Every one I have seen looks like he goes up near his throat area.

Here it is:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=4149018

To me, it still looks like Kobe catches him a little in the neck area.  I still think he should be suspended, but I doubt he will be.

[ToppersBsktball10]

Fisher will be, he saw Scola and took him out,and the scum of the earth aka Phil Jackson of course argues on that its clean? That was one of the hardest fouls I've ever seen, even though scola acted like he got hit in the face when he got hit in the chest. As far as Kobe, I'm not sure yes it was intentional but Artest was holding his head for a few seconds, anyways I hope Kobe's suspended for 1 game atleast even though it won't happen, while Fisher gets 2+ games.

[housecall]

By Ron Artest bringing Kobe's elbowing him and other players to the spotlight, it just might work to their(Rockets)advantage for the remainder of the series.The refs will have to call it and pay closer attn to Kobe's actions.The letter of the law states any elbows above the shoulders is an automatic suspension,but we are dealing with Kobe here. 

[Dissent]

Kobe has been suspended twice in a season for elbows, but he would have to waterboard someone out there to get suspended in the playoffs at this point in his career.

The league is backpeddling as fast as it can because it doesn't want a reputation for second-guessing referees.

Only person who might get suspended is Fisher, for a blatant intent to do nothing but cause harm.

[pearljammer10]

Derek Fisher without a doubt should get a suspension. He saw Scola coming the entire way, lowered his shoulder, and gave him a blatant wrestling move. I know he got ejected but for that I give him a game as well...

I give Kobe a game too. Send him a message. I feel that the league needs to give him the suspension. It looked intentional and was an elbow to the throat which is at the shoulder level. The league needs to send him a message and tell him he cant get away with things like this. Its only fair. If not this series might escalate to an even bigger wrestling match.

[Stu]

The NBA is sure taking their time to decide on these suspensions. Thinking long and hard about the best explanation to give for Kobe not being suspended, I imagine.

[D Dub]

Looks like Kobe got off.  D Fish and Raefer are both out for their respective Game 3's. 

I think they got these calls right.  The league must have learned it's lesson from teh Spurs/Suns debacle a couple of years ago.