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Fin wasn't in more pain because he's got balls of steel.
Buck Harvey: As Cuban goes low: Power of madness
Web Posted: 05/19/2006 12:00 AM CDT
http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/c....21e7901d.html
San Antonio Express-News
I'm not sure if Mark Cuban is just another fan on another message board. Or if he's stirring up the mob for tonight.
I'm not sure if Cuban believes Jason Terry's closed-fist punch to Michael Finley's groin wasn't really a punch. Or if Cuban is so calculating, so sensitive to the psyche of the refs, that he wants to frame his Mavericks as victims.
I'm just sure of a few e-mails exchanged with Cuban on Thursday evening, including this thought from him:
"Laying on your back with someone on top of you, you just got hit in the head with a hip and you are trying to get them off of you. That's not throwing a punch."
This analysis comes, remember, from a very smart man.
Cuban lost Terry for a game, but in no way have the Mavericks lost this series. They still have enough to beat the Spurs, and most everyone knows by now the classic NBA dynamic. When stars go down, seemingly everyone else goes up.
Should the Spurs win tonight, Game 7 is also no lock. Terry would be returning then with the Mavericks less skittish than determined. They lost by a point in San Antonio in Game 5. Couldn't they win Monday night?
The Spurs also feared how Sacramento would react without Ron Artest, and their fears were realized. The Kings relaxed without him, then boiled upon his return.
The Spurs realize this, but they will still take what has been given them. This is an elimination game, after all. American Airlines Center will be crazy no matter, so the Spurs figure they might as well not face a player who scored 32 points against them the last time in Dallas.
Terry isn't Dirk Nowitzki. But he's still a clutch shooter who has done a decent job defending Manu Ginobili. The Mavericks are also accustomed to playing with him; he hasn't missed a game since December.
But what he did Wednesday is the sign of someone who spent too much time with the Atlanta Hawks. My impression of the incident, as sent in an e-mail to Cuban:
"Terry probably got banged in the pile for the loose ball, but that happens in basketball. I didn't see anything that made me think either Finley or Ginobili tried to hit him. To me, Terry wasn't reacting to get Finley off of him. He threw a punch."
Going by the video, Terry threw the punch with a closed fist, too. And everyone in the league knows the rules. It's part of the code of conduct, and the guidelines are clear. Suspension follows.
Terry lost his senses, and he did a year ago in a simple basketball play in the Phoenix series. Then, he left Steve Nash open for a 3. This time, instead of going under a screen as he did then, Terry went under to hit Finley in a vital spot.
Terry, on his radio show Thursday night in Dallas, used words that would confuse a veteran politician. "That's totally unsportsmanlike," he said, "and something I wouldn't have done intentionally, if it did happen. For (Finley) to say I intentionally punched him in the groin or stomach, I don't think it happened that way."
Cuban believes this kind of dream-sequence explanation. "Jason didn't even know he did it," Cuban said.
I e-mailed Cuban with another question: No matter the details, isn't a punch with a closed fist always a suspension?
To his credit, Cuban got back to me in minutes. He asked me if I had seen the video, which I had, and he ended the e-mail with: "Throwing a punch is different than reacting with a closed fist when you are the bottom of a pileup. (Terry) couldn't rip a piece of paper from that situation with a fist."
Finley, going by his expression Wednesday, would likely disagree with that.
Cuban disputes that, too. He thinks if Finley had really been punched there, he would have been in more pain. "It was Fin being Fin," Cuban wrote. "Being smart enough to take advantage of the opportunity."
Or is Cuban being smart enough to take advantage of the opportunity? After losing a player, did Cuban want something in return?
So why admit to anything? Why not portray this dishonorable act as some kind of blur, that Finley is playing the crowd, that somehow the Mavericks have been wronged?
I'm sure about something else.
The Spurs will hear about this tonight.
Fin wasn't in more pain because he's got balls of steel.
This is a time when the Spurs will need to remain poised. Throughout the last 2 championship runs, there was some type of distraction with at least one of the opposing teams. Last year it was primarily the Sonics and the "no respect for the Spurs" talk, Ray Allen's incessant whining about Bruce, and so forth.
I can't remember what it was in 2003, but there was something then too. Our guys have enough experience to understand it's all about staying poised in times like this and just go play.
All of Cuban's whining about Refs, no accountability for JT's actions, his disrespectful words about Finley and SA.... it's all getting a little old right about now. Calling out SA's Riverwalk was juvenile.
Let them be distracted if that's what they want. We just need to remain poised and ready to play.
I actually think the punch was too high, but it doesn't matter because a punch is a punch, whether it's in the balls or any other part of the body, and it was clearly a punch...
As a basketball player, Finley just might also be wearing a cup. In which case it wouldn't have hurt Finley as much, but the closed fist makes it a punch. Hence the suspension.
cuban is an idiot. maybe he didnt get a punch landed right on the nuts. it is the throwing of the punch that is illegal, the refs arent going to investigate finley's sack.
Cuban sent an email to ESPN in reaction to Terry's suspension on thursday. My favorite part of his comments were, and I quote "Unbelievable. When it's all said and done, this series could end up being talked about for all the wrong reasons". You think so, doctor? I don't suppose those wrong reasons include Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili fouling out late in games 3 and 4 on more than questionable officiating? Or the fifty trips to the foul line for the Mavs in game 3, or Nowitzki's gift free throws at the end of game 4 which ended up sending it to overtime? For all of his ramblings about wanting to improve the league through technological advances, studying officials to help them do a better job, etc., it's ironic how a piece of video and a set in stone rule are going to cost his team. You can bet your ass if the shoe was on the other foot, he would have sent the video in himself, from every angle in high defenition, and would have screamed bloody murder if it meant gaining an advantage for the Dallas Mavericks. Cuban has proved to be full of on alot of issues. There is no nobility or whats best for the league in anything this guy does-if it doesn't help him or his team, he could give a rats ass. He is a fraud, and has been exposed.
why can't a media outlet print this?
because if they did, cuban would be ing OWNED
All-in-all, it just proves what a yellow, egg sucking dog Mark Cuban really is
I respect Cuban's wallet and nothing else. Other than that, he's a buttjam with a bad haircut and crappy takes.
If AJ and Cuban hadn't ed to the refs this series would be over
Cuban = Shank + money.
He is just a stupid homer.
Anyways, Cuban doesn't say this unless it fulfills a purpose and that is to cover Terry's ass. You'd think most Mavs fans could see past that and be pissed as at Terry.
Then again, Cuban likes playing the victim publicly.
Finley is going to really tear it up tonight. Just watch. Spurs win big tonight.
i don't see why they bring up finley not acting like he was in pain. so if the punch misses his testicles he shouldn't get pissed? the intent was obvious and would make any male save a eunuch upset.
The punch was attempted. Even if it does not land its still a suspension.
All the Mavs and Cuban are doing is adding more fuel to the Spurs fire. Bring it on baby!
Pop actually landed one on Cuban -- I guess today during shoot-around.
link
Awesome!"After one margarita, I don't know what's in the river," he said, laughing. "Maybe he should come down and have one. He can look at life a little bit more maturely."
Pop can be masterful in cutting to the chase sometimes. He definitely keeps things in the proper perspective.
I'm guessing the punch landed somewhere in the area of the jewels. Otherwise, Fin wouldn't have come up off that pile as pissed as he was.....
Cuban trying to down play it, and call it accidental?....Is he planning to run for Governor or something....Sounds like he's getting the sound bites down right for it.......
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