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Yeah, okay.
Francis hurt, mates
irked at Bowen
Steve Francis did not play in the second half of last night's loss to the Spurs after spraining his ankle. Some Knicks felt it was caused by Francis being undercut by Bruce Bowen.
Bowen, one the league's best defensive players, has been accused by Vince Carter and Ray Allen of not giving them enough room to land when they shoot jump shots.
Francis, who was injured in the first quarter and returned shortly after that, was not available for comment after the game but several teammates, who did not want to be identified, felt Bowen's play was dirty. X-rays taken at the Garden were negative but it is not known if Francis will be available for tomorrow's game against Denver. Channing Frye also sat in the second half but wasn't hurt. He shot 0-for-5 and is inching closer to losing his starting job.
Frank Isola
Yeah, okay.
And I think the Knicks is the worst franchise in the NBA, but my opinion means squat, too.
Maybe he should just give them a nice cushion so they can get an open shot and plenty of room to land.
The Knicks think Bowen is dirty because he uses dirty tricks. No revelation there.
And yet none of the other NBA players voiced a protest as to his dirty play when he was a finalist for the US team this summer.
Bruce doesn't have to put is foot out like that.
The Carter indicient was already arguable.
Bruce doing the same to Franchise piles up the evidence against Bruce.
I have to somewhat agree that him putting his foot out like that is kind of dangerous for the shooter.
Same thing happened to Josh Howard last night and not one called the Warrior in question a dirty player. This is simply what happens when someone actually puts forth effort on defense. Most guys don't even try to get a hand in the face when they are out of position. Bruce is always hustling, always crowding his man. It should be expected that from time to time a jump shooter will come down on his foot.
This coming from that bastion of sportsmanship Steve Francis.
I saw the play and the replay. I immediately thought that Bruce got a bit too far underneath the shooter. It would have been different had Bruce rose up with him and tried to block his shot at the point of release and Francis came down on him.
I don't know whether Bruce's actions were accidental or intentional. Because so many players have been hurt in this fashion, it's hard to believe the number of players getting hurt in this fashion is merely a coincidence.
If this is a "specific trick" in Bowen's tactical arsenal (and I hope that it's not), I hardly see the point in it. Anyone who has played the game and has twisted or turned an ankle knows how painful this can be.
I love Bowen for his skill, defensive effort and professionalism. Therefore, I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt on this. I hope there's not a pattern starting here.
It's a compe ive game and everyone's looking for an edge, yet no one wants to see anyone get hurt - accidental or on purpose.
The point of it would be so that the shooter is worried about where he is landing rather than concentrating on his shot.
I'm not saying Bruce is intentionally doing that. I'm just saying that would be the obvious point if it was intentional.
The same season that Bowen supposedly did that to Carter on purpose, someone (I wish I could remember who) did exactly the same thing onto Carter's foot and was out for the season. Nobody even gave it a second mention or questioned Carter's intentions. All the doubts I had about Bowen went away at that moment.
This happens ALL THE TIME people. Nobody bothers to mention it when it happens to anyone else.
Besides Carter has lately been kicking his feet out trying to kick Bruce in the process.... and yet no one even bothers to question his intentions.
With Bowen guarding the team's best perimeter player every night for the last three or four years if he was really dirty there would be more incidents than this. How many jump shots from Dirk, Finley, Kobe, et al has he defended without killing anyone?
The replay showed that Ray Allen messed up his ankle on his own. I didn't actually see VC's injury but given his ease of injury I'm inclined to believe that he was just being a little . On all of that, I'd say this is just an accident.
I don't think it's intentional, that's just what happens when you play the kind of relentless defense he plays. There are a lot of players that give up once they are beaten, but Bruce is the type of player that will try to get a hand in your face or block your shot if he is in front of you, beside you, or behind you...
Yeah.. a dirty player by the rules. Blame David Stern for that and make him create like a "no foot sticking out" rule or something like that lol
That's a credit to Bruce's defense more than anything else.
It has to be. Bowen guards the league's biggest draws every game; the very high profile superstars the league relies on for revenue and ticket sales. If there were any evidence that he was intentionally hurting ANYONE they'd drum his ass out of the league without a proper hearing in a New York minute.
IF anyone goes back to rewatch the game...take a look at what Francis does when he comes back into the game...
He sticks his foot under Manu's feet when Manu is shooting a 3.
Players do this all the time...guys sprain ankles from landing on the feet of others all the time.
The reason Bruce gets called out for it and no one else does is because Bruce punks and irritates them defensively in so many ways they are looking for an excuse to get on him. Bruce doesn't even look after the play...he looks to the basket.
Just go back and watch...Francis does it to Manu on the next defensive posession he is in the game.
He probably did it in retaliation, as if to mock/imitate Bruce.
Well I agree it is unusual to see Francis play D...but he's not doing anything intentional...he's not even looking.
Bowen didn't do it on purpose
how many times do we need to have this debate? i mean really.
The Knicks just need some kind of excuse for losing again........if they want to target Bruce, fine. That doesn't change the fact that they are really a bad team from top to bottom.
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