Dirty Players

As a follow up to this, Sam Smith of the Trib makes a couple of points.

Days of prideful dirty players over | Chicago Tribune James Posey, the character from the Miami Heat, is dirty.

Posey served his one-game suspension Friday for taking down Luol Deng on Wednesday in Miami's game against the Bulls, a suspension the Bulls predictably thought was too lenient.

Heat coach Pat Riley also objected, predictably, because it apparently would keep Posey from his appointment to accept a good-citizenship medal.
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Posey is a dirty player, and has been for some time, which is an irony of sorts. When he played in Denver and Memphis, he was known as a “soft” player who backed away from physical play. But he mostly hits guys from behind, so it's not like he has toughened up. More likely he has watched Bill Laimbeer tapes.

I watched the game between Miami and Chicago, and Posey was guilty of at least three dirty fouls, which if added to other cheap shots Posey dished out in previous games between the two teams, is evidence of a vendetta, or of instructions from thug-ball disciple, Pat Riley.

Also, what is up with all the hand-wringing over fighting in the NBA? When baseball teams get into brawls, everyone yucks it up later. When hockey players get into fights, well, we've all heard the jokes.

And so we move on from the debate about who is a dirty player, what is a dirty play and why the officials in hockey just stand there while guys punch each other yet it's the NBA that is called the violent league.

The racism debate will have to wait as we sort out NBA malevolence.
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But it's nowhere near what it once was, and nowhere near what happens on the ice in hockey and on the field in football.

Here's a list of several players I dislike, and apparently, so does Mr. Smith.

He's not playing this season because of an injury, but one of the worst is Denver's Kenyon Martin, filled with lots of phony bluster and elbows from behind. The Mavericks' Jason Terry is one to watch for, and not only for that punch to the groin of Michael Finley during a tie-up in last season's playoffs. The little guard is sneaky. ...

When I ask about dirty players around the NBA these days, there are few names that come up immediately. Seattle's Danny Fortson is probably the consensus, and he sued former Suns managing partner Jerry Colangelo for calling him a thug. Truth being the ultimate defense, we haven't heard much from that.

It's one of Ron Artest's lesser sins, but he gets into the top five with the angry, well-placed elbow. More common is something like the tactic of Terry's Dallas teammate Josh Howard, who likes to stick out his foot to stop a potential fast break. Alonzo Mourning was worse before he got to Miami.

Reggie Evans of Denver, and Raja Bell, of Phoenix, could both be on this list, but they are not quite in the same category. There is also a distinction between players like Bruce Bowen (San Antonio Spurs), Andres Nocioni (Chicago) and maybe Anderson Varejao (Cleveland Cavs) - they all play tenacious defense, but I wouldn't consider them 'dirty' players, just good players to have on your team.

Tags: Bulls, /Cleveland_ Cavaliers, /Dallas_Mavericks, /Miami_Heat, /Sacramento_Kings