Quote:
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"It all boils down to one thing: You can't always be the retaliator. You've got to be the instigator once in a while. Sometimes, you have to beat the [bad word] out of the other guy before they beat the [bad word] out of you."
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Unfortunately, as we've already pointed out, Fortson had already (foolishly) played the role of instigator against the Suns, so he was unavailable to be even a retaliator when he was really needed against Malone and the Lakers.
Fortson talks as big as his butt, but so far, hasn't shown much evidence of being able to deter rough play against the Mavericks, other than that inflicted by rookie forwards from Serbia who dare to drive to the hoop for a dunk in blowout wins over the Mavericks. He just doesn't seem to inspire much fear in the bona fide bad asses of the NBA. I don't know....maybe it's the WNBA hairstyle and the Hillary Clinton headband.
Memo to Fortson: (someone read it for him)--Yes, the Mavericks need you to play hard, and to play physically. But you have to play at least semi-productively and semi-intelligently, so that they can have you out on the floor when they need your style of play. Otherwise, Nellie might as well send you back to Red to light his cigars.