If you haven’t yet seen it, Kevin Love of the Minnesota Timberwolves stepped on Luis Scola’s face tonight. The play was clearly intentional from any angle and surprising for a guy like Love; but stuff happens in the heat of the battle when emotions are running high. It looked to me like Love got his foot tangled on Scola on the way down and instead of carefully disloding, thought “eh, what the hell? While my foot’s down here, I might as well follow-through and stomp this guy’s face.”
What bothered me most about the play was the Rockets’ reaction. Sure they responded with a furious attack, fighting their way back into the game. But not one player confronted Love about the incident. I guess Kyle Lowry gave him a foul at the other end, but that doesn’t suffice.
This is something that’s bothered me about the Rockets since 2009. Over that span of time, they’ve played harder than any team in basketball, you could argue. But where’s the toughness?
Those who argue they prefer a supposedly ‘classy’, turn-the-other-cheek approach ignore the psychological aspect of team sports. You just can’t allow your ‘mates to be disrespected and pushed around. If you do, it will just keep happening.
Many don’t understand the distinction between ‘toughness’ and ‘dirty play’, confusing the two and responding to calls like mine with trite platitudes about ‘classiness.’ No one here is asking a Rocket to throw a punch or instigate. Just get in the guy’s face. Give a hard, but safe foul (avoiding the head) at the other end. That alone is enough.
Bob Sura’s one of my favorite Rockets of all-time because he stood up for Yao Ming. Josh Howard of the Mavericks committed some egregiously dangerous fouls against the Rockets’ big man, tripping him while he was on his way down. Sura was having none of it. At the other end, he slammed Howard to the ground and stood over him. No play to the head, nothing dangerous. Just a hard foul and a message sent. Yao wasn’t touched again.
Vernon Maxwell knew how to protect his ‘mates, standing up for Hakeem on that particular play. Some will argue that with that reaction, he drew the ire of his coach. But those were special circumstances as he had already been ejected from a previous game. Teams didn’t mess with those Rockets and teammates certainly appreciated #11.
