One for the team ?

Every team needs an enforcer. Randolph made it perfectly clear to his team mates that he knows how to play the tough guy role. Brilliant move Zach.

http://espn.go.com/nba/playoffs/2014/story/_/id/10874180/zach-randolph-memphis-grizzlies-suspended-game-7

swish

swish,

Wow, do we ever disagree on this.

I think this is the absolute height of stupidity by Randolph.  He may have just single-handedly, or perhaps I should say "single-fistedly", lost the series and the season for his team and got them knocked out of the playoffs.

An enforcer is someone whose job is to protect key players on his team, right?  Well, Zach Randolph IS the key player on his team.  Other players should be enforcers to protect him, not the other way around.

Have you ever seen Kobe Bryant "enforcing"?  Of course not.  What you saw was TAFKARA enforcing to protect Kobe.  Did you ever see Magic enforce? Of course not. What you saw was Rambis enforcing to protect Magic. Have you ever seen Dirk enforce? Of course not. Did you ever see Bird enforce? Of course not. What you saw was other players like M.L. Carr doing it. When Bird reacted, like when he punched out Laimbeer, it was because Laimbeer went after Bird and NOT because Laimbeer went after another Celtic and Bird was enforcing for that other Celtic. That's because the enforcer is supposed to be more expendable than the player he's protecting. What's so good about getting your best player thrown out because he was out of line? You want your best player on the floor and enforcing will get you tossed and/or suspended. Like Randolph just was.

The link you provided had Bruce Bowen, probably the dirtiest player to ever play in the NBA, talking about the play (irony which was not lost on me.  That's like the U.N. paying Pol Pot to comment on a news report of atrocities).  Here's the video of the actual play.  You'll see that Randolph pushed Adams in the back on rebound.  Adams was running down court after the shot went in, not even looking at Randolph after he was pushed from behind by him, and Randolph going after him some more.  

In fact, Beno Udrih put a bone-crushing pic on Russell Westbrook to free up the shooter on that play (:37 seconds into the video).  IF ANYBODY should have been enforcing it should have been Adams to defend rough play against his #2 player.  What happened instead was Randolph's adrenaline kicking in and thinking that he wants a piece of someone too.

I'm not a big fan of the wussification of today's NBA, but this is just a complete surrender of professionalism by Zach Randolph.  He has severely hurt his team and he should apologize to his teammates and to the Griz fans for being such a bonehead.  The Griz were up 3-2 and were losing this game at home.  Frustration was high because they could have closed out the Thunder with a win on home court, but that's no excuse for Randolph's actions.  His team is probably going to get obliterated tonight, and it will be as much his fault as anybody else's and he won't even be in the building.





This is a short clip that looks only at the attack by Randolph.





If you want to bemoan that nobody else on the Griz roster was stepping up and enforcing, fine, but other than that? Nope, sorry, I'm not buying it. Randolph is the goat, not the hero, here.


bob


.

BobH,

I could be wrong, but as I was reading it, I thought he was being sarcastic.


KJ

I was about to type the same thing, KJ. I believe Swish's word "brilliant" was totally sarcastic.

Sam

Well there's a whole lot of research for nothing.


bob



.

I thought Swish was being sarcastic, but sarcasm can be tough to read sometimes. Snark, on the other hand, is unequivocal.

I don't know what it is about Adams, but for a guy who doesn't play all that much, he gets other guys really angry at him. In addition to this incident, Vince Carter was suspended for elbowing him, Nate Robinson was fined for hitting him, Jordan Hamilton was suspended for punching him, and Larry Sanders was ejected for elbowing him. That's one busy rookie season getting a lot people angry.

When I watch him play, I just see a guy who plays hard and doesn't get upset himself in any of these situations, but he must be the master of tricks that get other guys mad. Right before Randolph elbows and punches him, they sort of got tangled up running up the court and Randolph stumbled, which didn't seem like a big deal. There is definitely something else going on before that, but I have yet to see it.

The Vince Carter case I understand. Here's a clip.



Adams has his elbows up high and whacks Carter in the side of the head. Carter takes exception and elbows Adams back. Adams barely seems to notice. Maybe this is what Adams does -- get his elbows up and out, which other players take exception to.

The guy is seven feet, long wingspan, very athletic, very physical, very active. He seems like the kind of guy you like to have on your team and hate to play against.

As for Z-Bo, that was inexcusable. He's a veteran guy who plays the same way (except he's floor-bound, while Adams is not), and he has to keep his cool and know that he could get suspended for that. Maybe he was thinking he'd get thrown out of game 6 and be able to play in game 7, or maybe he wasn't thinking at all. Whatever the case, really dumb on his part.

Bob

Sorry about that bob. I'll try too make it more obvious the next time.

swish