Justice Served

[Da Boss DJ Jo Corleone]

I forgot one more thing that I absolutely love about the playoffs, the physical play. For those of us who have never had a chance to play professionally we’re use to playing games where some of the fouls we receive and give are as hard as it gets. The NBA of course would like to consider themselves above that type of play, but come playoff time all those professional athletes that you took off the black tops revert back to their old selves. You can take the player from the blacktop, but you can’t take the blacktop away from the player.
Speaking of blacktop let’s talk about the leagues most popular black top ball Rafer “Skip To My Lou” Alston. Alston’s fame started on the mix tape scene, which is now know as the And 1 mix tape tour, where he worked his tail off to get to the NBA. After years of playing street ball, I was still shocked to see him slap Eddie House in the back of the head during Wednesday night’s game.

This is a man who has dribbled the ball off of people’s heads and faces, so for him to get upset over a shove, or as he called it an elbow to the stomach (the jury’s still out on that one) was crazy to me. On his end the league was correct to suspend him for a game, because keeping it real we all know he was just frustrated because House and the Celtics were torching him and the Magic.

On the west coast the little bulldog as I call him Derek Fisher put an NFL like shoulder on Louis Scola. I thought Scola was a wide out running into a free safety during that game. Once again the association got it right by suspending Fisher, but as a fan I wasn’t mad at him. And when I say fan I mean of the game not the Lakers. People have been saying since last year that the Lakers, outside of Kobe Bryant, look soft. Fisher has heard and read the same things that the rest of us have, and it’s no secret that Houston is anything but soft.

Fisher took upon himself to lead by example, and show his team that he can match Houston’s physicality. That play was to ignite the Lakers, and send a message to the Rockets saying, “If you want a dog fight then you have one.” Friday night’s game will show if the rest of the Lakers got the message and are ready to come out swinging.

Last but not least, Kobe’s elbow to Ron Artest. This is a play as common in the NBA as traveling, and it’s called just as much, hardly at all. If you watch Kobe closely he does a lot of sneaky things like that, but since he’s one of the NBA’s superstars he doesn’t get called for them. Something you would think Artest knew, before running up on him. My bad we’re talking about Artest a man that walks to the beat of his own drum.

I wasn’t mad at Ron either in that game. First off I’m still trying to see how a foul was called on Artest during that play. Secondly like a good citizen he reported his problem to the proper authority, but was ignored. Thirdly like a citizen that feels unprotected he decided to take care of the problem himself. In the playoffs you have to let guys know that they can’t just push you around, bow you in the face, or slap you in the back of the head. And that’s what Artest made very clear to Bryant, on his way to the locker room.

Unfortunately it did cost him the rest of the game, but after the league officials reviewed the play Bryant was slapped with a flagrant 1, and if he collects a few more of those during the playoffs it could lead to a 1 game suspension. Game 3 is tonight in Houston and can be seen on ESPN following game 3 between the Magic and Celtics.