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I would love to see Cowens dirty play.
I watched to small amount of his games
Reader's Request: Dirtiest players
http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/story/5860712
Note: This is the fifth piece in a series where NBA analyst Charley Rosen takes suggested topics from our readers and expands upon them in great detail. If you have a question that you would like to have Charley give the "Reader Request" treatment, just fire it off in the box below.
I know that you're not afraid of being controversial, so how about identifying the dirtiest players of all time? — Mr. X
A distinction must be made between players who are rough and those who are downright dirty. Although those in the former category play physical, rock-'em-sock-'em basketball, they do so within the boundaries of certain accepted techniques having to do with appropriate placements for aggressive elbows, hip bumps and forearm thumps, plus the execution of deliberate fouls that are not career-threatening, and so on.
Players who are considered to be dirty, however, routinely overstep these boundaries and are more concerned with winning than with the possibility of their tactics inflicting serious injuries on their opponents.
That said, the NBA's inaugural season of 1946-47 (when the league was known as the Basketball Association of America) featured the largest number of truly dirty players. The reason for this was that most of the BAA's 11 charter franchises were administered by men (or their representatives) who owned arenas, and who also were either total or partial owners of the professional ice hockey teams that played in those arenas.
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Accordingly, it was believed that nothing pepped up a game and brought back customers more than a rousing fistfight. Despite the fact that zone defenses were legal (if for only the initial 10 weeks of that first season), the players gleefully assaulted each other on a regular basis. The referees lacked any real authority to curtail this violence &3151; technical fouls incurred a mere $25 fine and were used to pay the commissioner's salary. There were no automatic penalties for blatant punches, elbows to the face, trips, kicks or bites.
# As a result, early BAA action was as much mayhem as it was skilled compe ion. Even so, one player was deemed to be the most bloodthirsty and physically abusive of them all — Ed Sadowski. But "Big Ed" was more than just a hatchet man. He was a 6-foot-5, 240-pound powerhouse scorer in the low post, who averaged a career-high of 19.4 ppg with the 1947-48 Boston Celtics.
# Wally Osterkorn (1951-55) had his career shortened by a torn muscle in his thigh, but he showed no mercy to opponents while he was healthy. He once greeted a highly-touted rookie named Jack Molinas with a pair of vicious elbows to the stomach before saying, "Welcome to the NBA, Jack." And Osterkorn used to dare Bob Cousy to drive the ball into the middle. But Osterkorn's untrammeled ferocity was tamed when he got involved in a fight with Zeke Zawoluk resulting in Zawoluk's mother racing out of the stands and beating Osterkorn's head with an umbrella. Unwilling to hit a woman, Osterkorn allowed her to chase him around the court until Zawoluk finally corralled her.
# Red Auerbach always liked having a hit-man or two on his roster, the most notable being Bob "The Tank" Brannum (1948-55), Dwight "Red" Morrison (1954-58) and "Jungle" Jim Loscutoff (1955-64).
# How mean was Charlie Share? At 6-11, 245, he played for several teams from 1951-1960, and was noted for setting the most evil moving screens in the NBA. During part of his tenure with the Fort Wayne Pistons, Share's coach was Paul Birch, an infamous hot-head who wasn't very far removed from his own active career to the point where he often scrimmaged with his team. During one such scrimmage, Share enhanced one of his attack screens with an elbow to Birch's head that sent his coach sprawling. No surprise that Share was quickly traded to Milwaukee.
Opposing centers weren't afraid to admit having nightmares in anticipation of facing the Zelmo Beatty's wrath. (Wen Roberts/NBAE / Getty Images)
# Zelmo Beatty (1962-1975) was a certified All-Star who used his elbows to help carve out space for him to operate in the pivot. Opposing centers weren't afraid to admit having nightmares in anticipation of facing the Big Z's wrath.
# Nor was John Stockton quite the choir boy he seemed to be. Indeed, Stockton's elbow-flashing back-screens were a constant menace.
# A pair of Knicks also make the list — Anthony Mason and Xavier "X-Man" McDaniel. This pairing came about when Pat Riley dropped his slick-Showtime game plan in order to mimic the contemporary successes of the Bad Boy Pistons.
# Speaking of which … Chuck Daly claimed that he had nothing to do with the below-the-belt antics of his players, which was, of course, nonsense. In any event, these guys were arguably the dirtiest team of all time.
Bill Laimbeer was the most obvious offender, with his brutal head-hunting and after-the-whistle fouls — and Dennis Rodman wasn't far behind. But the worst offender on that team was Isiah Thomas. Zeke's favorite little trick was exercised on defense, when he was wont to step on an opponent's plant-foot just the unsuspecting player was trying to take off with ball in hand and jump to the basket. If the refs never caught on to this nasty business, Thomas's peers were well aware that their careers were jeopardized whenever they tried to beat Zeke to the hoop. And this was the primary reason why MJ refused to play on the original Dream Team if Thomas was included on the roster.
# Of today's players, Bruce Bowen's grabbing, scratching and under-cutting defense qualifies him as the dirtiest. Kenyon Martin's bully-boy tactics hover on the edge of danger, but only when he plays at home. Ruben Patterson sometimes crosses the line, as does Danny Fortson.
# But the dirtiest player in NBA history was Dave Cowens. Yes, he was skilled. Yes, he was tough. Yet his all-out aggressiveness was frequently mindless and downright sadistic. (In a bar-fight while he was in college, Cowens once bit off a large piece of an antagonist's nose.) Cowens, more than any of his predecessors, was considered by his contemporaries to be the one player whose over-the-top brutality was most likely to send an opponent to the hospital.
OUCH!
Charley Rosen is FOXSports.com's NBA analyst and author of 13 books about hoops, the current one being "The pivotal season, How the 1971-72 L.A. Lakers changed the NBA."
I would love to see Cowens dirty play.
I watched to small amount of his games
Strange, he makes the distinction between rough and dirty and then totally misclassifies Bowen...
I am glad to see Stockton on the list. I always hated his back screens.
Yeah, Rosen is inconsistently all over the place, as per usual.
I don't think anybody would place Dave Cowens as the dirtiest player of all time.
Although I too am glad to see Stockton get called out, since there is a small Church of Stockton around these parts.
Stock is there but his teammate should be there also. Damn - sometimes he was elbowing cause he was mad at somebody.
How about Kurt Rambis? Who remember this guy?
Cause I don't but he looked like a sob
Yeah.... where is Karl Malone????
Rick Mahorn? Jeff Ruland? Karl Malone? Maurice Lucas? AC Green?
Funny how he used every possible opportunity to bash Thomas, because he is Phil Jackson's mouthpiece.
Charley Rosen needs to be on the list of "most idiotic sportswriters."
JR Reid threw some pretty nasty 'bows in his time, too. And Danny Fortson "sometimes crosses the line?" Bull . He's easy to overlook because he sucks so bad that he doesn't get big minutes, but when he's out there on the floor he's the dirtiest of the dirty from what I've seen.
Personally I'm just amazed that Rosen finally found a topic where he couldn't take an unwarranted shot at David Robinson when the copy really would have written itself. "Some will argue that Karl Malone was dirty, citing the instance in which a blatantly high elbow knocked David Robinson unconscious. However, this instance is simply an example of rough play and highlights how soft 'The Admiral' was."
That's a good point. Maybe he didn't mention Malone because it would indirectly be making points in favor of DRob.
Looking for Pinatas to destroy and little Mexican girls to love up on.Yeah.... where is Karl Malone????
That would have been more apt for Phil and Rosen if the arrow was pointing at Michael Jordan's shorts.
It'd be awful crowded with Bob Costas in there.
and Ahmad Rashad.It'd be awful crowded with Bob Costas in there.
Search inside
Can't believe he didn't include Karl Malone on that list. This guy's a .
I can tell Rosen is a pussy and never played ball. I don't see Bowen being diry cause that's how I play ball too. Most of the time my opposing players don't mind, only a few pussies do, just like in the NBA (example: gay allen)
I'm not a Rosen apologist, however, he did play ball. He was a very good small-college player and he coached in the CBA for 9 years.
Bowen's not dirty and out of control with his temper like some players are, Danny Fortson for instance.
Whenever I have played ball, the only guys I ever considered dirty were the ones who couldn't control their temper or did not respect the game. These are the guys at the gym or court who end up using their 'bows, pushing someone airborne into the pole or even semi-slugging someone in the face on a follow-through block attempt and then saying "'you okay, man?"
I liked to play Bowne defense back in the day before it was in vouge...moving my feet..beating you to the position..using my hands ..all without fouling.. used to piss of the brothers that a mexican dude could out ball them..
I remember when Dennis Rodman played for the Spurs briefly that I was shocked at how sometimes he'd deliberately go underneath someone who was going up for the basket or for a rebound.
That is a very dangerous manuver that takes out an opposing players legs and balance and can result in a very nasty fall. I couldn't wait for that guy to be gone from the Spurs.
Called out? A sport isn't worth watching (much less playing) if it isn't bloody.
I noticed that too.. makes me think theres is some personal dislike in that article.
So you , Bowen and me are playing the same type of game.
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