From the way Hornets Center Jason Smith body checked L.A. Clippers super star Blake Griffin last Thursday night at New Orleans Arena, you would think that now the New Orleans ‘basketball’ team had placed a bounty on the Los Angeles Clippers…
Blake Griffin tumbles to the hardwood after being side-swiped by Jason Smith of the the N.O. Hornets. Photo: Parker Waters
With 4:06 left to go in a game that was won by the 12-35 N.O. Hornets 97-90, Jason Smith, on a fast break, body slammed Blake Griffin who laid on the floor for several seconds. The foul was assessed as a flagrant 2 which was followed by an immediate ejection and subsequent 2-game suspension. As Smith made his way to the locker room he waived his arms encouraging the crowd of 17,209, who gave him a tremendous ovation. It was truly basketball at its worst…
Great action pic! As a ref myself, great decision with the flagrant 2.
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I think players are just afraid of being posterized by Griffin, so they’d rather give the flagrant foul than suffer the humilation.
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Valid point, but there’s a difference between a hard foul and a possible season or career ending foul. The least Smith could have done was to make an ‘attempt’ to go after the ball.
The foul did prompt Smith to issue a formal apology to Griffin yesterday and then today the Hornets coach personally apologized to him. Apologies don’t usually get made on your hard or flagrant 1 fouls. This was just over the top.
Thanks for checking in Maurice. We’re big fans of Fan On Fire!
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Yea, saw this play on the news. If only half of the NFL wide receivers would block like this on running plays, there’d be a lot more running backs still running! A lot of good stuff today…
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Lol…that’s sad but true.
Thanks for checking in Steven!
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I don’t think the foul was as bad as some are
Making it out to be. While it did seem as if he put a little extra oomph into the hit, it was hard to stop his forward momentum.
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Some may agree with you Sam but like I said, the least Smith could have done was make an ‘attempt’ to go for the ball. At least that way it would have ‘looked’ legit. And it had to have been a bad foul otherwise Smith AND his coach would not have had any reason to apologize to Blake. Right?
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