Do I need to be pissed that
West's flagrant foul 2 was changed into a flagrant 1 after the game vs Utah? I kind of expected him to miss this one after watching the highlights and reading this take from a
hornets blogger:
Quote:
David West's ejection
Whatever small chance the Hornets had at winning this game disappeared when West got ejected. But did that foul warrant a Flagrant 2 call? Yes, I believe it did. The definition of such a foul from NBA.com:
A Flagrant Foul, Penalty 2 is defined as contact that is unnecessary AND excessive. The defensive player on this play winds up and makes hard contact with the airborne offensive player in a dangerous manner. This type of contact is both unnecessary AND excessive. The penalty for a Flagrant 2 is two free throws for the offended player, and his team would also retain possession of the ball. The offending player would also be ejected from the game, pending confirmation of the call via Instant Replay review.
You can see several examples of flagrant 2 fouls over at NBA.com's video rulebook, and what West did is close enough to them. You simply can't swing your arm and make contact with the head of an airborne player. That's too much. The fact that the officials reviewed the play and stuck with the call also rules out the possibility that the contact just appeared excessive in the moment.
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And now he's a go and Paul could return as well tonight? I guess the poor results against teams without their star players should keep me from rooting for scenarios like that, but the outlook of not having two watch those ugly characters throughout the whole game and for the Mavs to play the sucky version of an to them always dangerous N.O. team sure seemed to be worth it.
On the plus side, now it's possible we see both, Roddy dunkin' on Paul(wooo) and some combination of Caron/Marion/Dirk dunkin' on West tonight, so there is still a lot to look forward to!