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That is insane, there just looking for someone to blame. Bruce is a GREAT defender, they are just frustrated.
Dirty play has no place in series
By Steve Kelley
Seattle Times staff columnist
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...08_kell10.html
SAN ANTONIO — The morning after didn't look much better than the night before.
Vlade Radmanovic and his sprained right ankle were absent from the Sonics' practice yesterday. He is done for the series.
And Ray Allen's sprained right ankle was wrapped in a cloth bandage and resting on top of a slipper.
Allen will return at some point in this Western Conference semifinal series against San Antonio, but he won't be the same. The ankle will limit his movement. He won't be able to drive hard to the basket. He will become a jump shooter.
Before yesterday's practice, as he sat in a cushioned chair along the baseline, Allen wouldn't assess blame for his injury, but time after time during the half-hour interview session he spoke about the Spurs' Bruce Bowen and his frustration with the over-the-top, physical way Bowen plays.
"He's injured other guys before," said Allen, whose team lost Game 1, 103-81. "I think so many people make excuses for him, as if he's out there doing something legitimate. But we've all seen what he does out there on the basketball floor."
Last season, Vince Carter, then with Toronto, landed on Bowen's foot and severely twisted his left ankle after launching a jump shot. "I question if it was an accident," Carter said.
This season, Carter, playing for New Jersey, took a similar jumper, and Bowen similarly cozied up on Carter, who landed awkwardly. Carter went after Bowen and was tossed from the game.
Allen flatly said Bowen is dirty. Said he jumps into players when they're shooting. He throws elbows that aren't called fouls. And, Allen said, Bowen rode him with an outstretched hand as he drove past him on the play that resulted in the injury.
"The way he was guarding me, it would be easy for me to say that he did something intentionally," Allen said. "I won't say if he caused it any more than if [Manu] Ginobli had been guarding me. I'm definitely not putting the blame on him. That's just part of basketball. But it's the way he rides me down the floor; you have to say that's possibly the reason.
"From a referee's point of view, if there's riding going on out on the floor, you have to make the call, plain and simple. I've played against [Bowen] before and when you take a shot, what he does is, he'll put his hands up, but he'll move his body right into your body. When you do that, you're putting the guy you're playing against in danger. It's just dirty basketball.
"You might say he wasn't trying to do anything to hurt you, but you just don't do that stuff. You don't run under a guy when he's shooting a jump shot. But we've seen it from him. We've all watched it."
Bowen, who is finishing work on a degree in public relations, protests that he wasn't trying to injure Allen.
"I don't ever want anybody not to play," Bowen said, "especially at this time of the season. I would love it [if Allen played tonight]. I look forward to the challenge of him playing. At the same time, I can't control what he does. If he plays, he plays. If he doesn't, he doesn't."
But Allen wonders why Bowen has to play that way, when other tough-minded defenders like Portland's Ruben Patterson play him well without the assists of extra elbows, shoves and body blows.
"Asking him why he plays that way is like asking Shaq why he dunks on people," Allen said. "That's what he does. That's how he plays. That's what he gets away with. You do whatever it is that makes you successful. If it's not a foul and he's not sitting on the bench, then I have to adjust to it.
"I respect the way Ruben plays. He beats you over screens. He'll contest my jump shot. He'll hedge over screens and knock the ball away. But he does it in a manner where he's always in my face. Bruce does things where you'll be running away from the play, and he'll elbow you in the chest.
"It's dirty basketball. You can sense that somebody will send him out there to do something negative to try and take me out of the game. That's his game. That's what he does. That's what they put him out on the floor to do, because he doesn't have an effect otherwise."
Early in Sunday's game, Bowen stuck an elbow in Allen's chest, and as Allen tried to move past, he pushed Bowen's elbow away. Official Derrick Stafford ignored the elbow and called the foul on Allen.
"He told me [Bowen] was allowed to stick his elbow out like that," Allen said. "I told him I didn't know about the new rule. I didn't get the memo. He's letting me get beat up, and if I retaliate I get the foul."
Bowen, who lacks the athletic gifts of all-stars like Allen, plays the game like a forward on a hockey team's checking line. He plays to disrupt the flow. He pushes the envelope, playing barely within the rules.
He has made a career and, after nine seasons, has established a reputation. And although they never will admit it, officials make some calls and ignore others based on reputations.
Bruce Bowen may not be the reason Ray Allen is hobbling today, but that doesn't excuse the way he plays. And it doesn't excuse the way officials allow him to play.
That is insane, there just looking for someone to blame. Bruce is a GREAT defender, they are just frustrated.
More ridiculous quotes from Ray. I don't get why he doesn't just be quiet and try to come out and torch Bowen.
i thought "dirty play" was going into the stands and beating down people.
this is the playoffs. bruce bowen is not new to the league. as much as allen and others have complained about him the nuances of his game have undoubtedly been scrutinized by the league again and again.
Worst article ever.
I would like to see ONE REPLAY where Allen can point out where Bruce is INTENTIONALLY trying to hurt him. What a "forkin cat" if you get my meaning.
OH my god...I use to have a liking for Allen..why in the is he always crying like a little .
Suck it up and be a man..damnit!
There are so many more guards/forwards that don't complain about Bruces play... It's just the same crybabies you hear all the time, Ray and Vince, you never hear Kobe, Tmac, Lebron, or anyone else complain.
I think Ray injured his brain more than his ankle.
Ray Allen doesn't know what dirty play is, he needs to go look at some tapes of the Bulls/Knicks or the Bulls/Pistons from the early nineties then he'll see what dirty and rough basketball really is.
And the only thing I can say about that sprain is that if it were a championship-less Jordan, Magic, or Bird, or any other number of greats they wouldn't have missed a second of that game because of a little tweak like that I can guarantee you that.....
Last edited by PM5K; 05-10-2005 at 03:56 AM.
Yeah thats before the hand-checking foul was introduced.... Ray Allen wouldnt have lasted a day in that NBA era
Yeah they used to be able to get away with a lot, guys would use their forearm or their hand on your hip to push you away from where you wanted to go.
What I was really talking about though were the hard fouls, elbows, picks that sent guys like Mike and Scottie to the floor hard from guys like Laimbeer and Oakley.
There were fouls in those games that were barely flagrants that would get you suspended nowadays.
Centers used to make so much contact while josseling for position back then that it's not even funny to compare it to how contact is called nowadays...
yeah man and , back in the day a player could bum rush fans and beat them down without even being fined. yeah.
LOL.....
Imagine what a player from that era thinks about a Ray Allen or Vince Carter crying about how physical someone is defending them
It's true though, in those Knicks and Pistons series a ref would never think of calling any of the fouls that have been called on Bruce Bowen when he's been guarding Ray Allen....
I swear if Allen was playing in the Argentinian basketball league he probably would do more complaining out there than actual playing. Over here, what he whines about is called "good defense". You'd think he expects people to just let him by. SAD!
the way Ray Allen has been ing he'd get mad even if Bruce Bowen went to the bench and stared at him too hard.....
ray allen is ing as much as some spurs fans about fortson threatening to beat people up inside. spurs fans must be pussies then if they cant handle that. because back in the day...
I never ed about Fortson, I mean yeah he is pretty much worthless unless you need someone that can give a good flagrant foul but even still I really don't give a rats ass about him because Tim Duncan could have beaten his ass down when he was fifteen....
well then spur fans shouldnt about fortson
Spurs fans aren't getting paid millions of dollars to play a game they love, so we can and complain all we want... Ray Allen on the other hand is, so he should stop crying and play
i guess i need to spell it out
ray allen must be held to a standard based on the way the game used to be played but a guy like fortson who does that exemplifies that standard has somehow crossed a line.
go figure.
I like to kick ray allen's ass some day if he ever play in asia.
No one here said that the way the game used to be played wasnt dirty, we are just saying its called differently now and if Ray played back then he wouldnt last. Oakley of that era was just as dirty as Fortson, only the game was called differently so no one noticed as much.
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