On Friday the NBA League Office reviewed the tapes of Wednesday's Suns-Spurs match up and determined that no action was necessary against Bruce Bowen for sharply kicking Amare Stoudemire in his Achilles tendon. Even though Stoudemire joins a long list of players who have come out against Bowen for being a flagrantly physical player, the office just dropped it. Note I didn't use the term "allegedly" in describing the incident- in the video I have seen, Bowen fully creeps up behind Stoudemire and clearly looks down to aim his foot so he can quickly kick Stoudemire as he's shooting. Check it out:
After the incident, Stoudemire told reporters on Thursday that Bowen intentionally tried to hurt him, called Manu Ginobili out for his behaviour during the regular season, and suggested that, overall, the Spurs are a "dirty team." Here's the thing: he's right. When I'm not so bored to tears by the Spurs and I actually take the time to watch them playing basketball it's like watching high school drama practice. In a single game you can see Ginobili and others trying to draw fouls by flopping over the stage, err I mean court, more times than in a Shakespearean tragedy. The frustrating thing is that for some reason most sports critics refuse to call out the Spurs for the way they behave on court. There was some minor backlash against them last season for their questionable behavior and a few bloggers calling for the end of the patented Ginobili flop that - in trying to draw attention and amplify a fake foul, has actually hurt other players in the process.
Maddeningly, in this recent Stoudemire-Bowen incident (especially after the NBA review on Friday), most sports bloggers and writers have turned against Stoudemire calling him "young" and immature for making comments against the Spurs in the media. You know what? I disagree. The Spurs do play dirty and I'm starting to suspect that Greg Popovich was the inspiration for the Evil Sensei character in The Karate Kid.
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