King Kaufman's Sports Daily
The NBA police state. Warriors Davis, Jackson thrown in the dungeon in loss to Mavericks; Brewers boss on bulletin-board blather: Bah.
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April 26, 2007 | The NBA's Draconian new law-enforcement regime had its best game of the playoffs Wednesday, with two Golden State Warriors getting ejected in the second half of their Game 2 loss to the Dallas Mavericks.
Baron Davis and Stephen Jackson each got the thumb in the second half of a game eventually won by the Mavericks 112-99 to even the first-round series at 1-1. The Mavericks were probably going to win anyway. Davis, so good in Game 1, wasn't having a big night. Jackson was, but by the time he got tossed, the Mavericks were up by 15 with less than five minutes to go.
And by that time the Warriors didn't have Davis, of course, who was run by referee Bennett Salvatore for smiling and clapping after a foul was called on him at the end of the third quarter.
That's the same Bennett Salvatore, by the way, whom Mavericks fans consider an enemy after he repeatedly sent Dwyane Wade of the Miami Heat to the free-throw line in last year's Finals. Salvatore's one of those guys who make me wonder if my running joke about foul calls in basketball being essentially random isn't so much of a joke after all. And he has a tendency to insert himself into the drama of playoff games.
Davis was given his second technical foul -- an automatic ejection -- for allegedly showing up Salvatore and his fellow refs with his actions. Davis later said that's not what he was doing, and that wasn't how it looked out here in America, where we're allowed to criticize authority figures without fear of swift and severe punishment anyway.
That's not how the NBA rolls.
Davis' clapping bit didn't look like a sarcastic or condescending gesture toward the refs. It looked more like he was saying, "OK, that sucked but I'm moving on here. Chin up. Best foot forward. Tally-ho."
In so many words.
Salvatore: "To the dungeon with you! Next stop, reeducation camp!"
In so many words.
Davis was marched off by a director of security type, sort of pathetically asking the fellow, complete with illustrative applause, "I can't clap my hands?"
Davis already had a technical foul on his rap sheet because of an incident earlier in the quarter in which technical fouls were falling like rain. Jason Terry of the Mavs had just dribbled into the frontcourt when he was fouled on a reach-in by Jackson. Terry kept dribbling, and both Davis and Matt Barnes took swipes at the ball.
Terry and teammate DeSagana Diop, who happened to be nearby, took exception to those post-whistle swats and bellied up to Davis and Barnes, who were standing next to each other. Devin Harris of the Mavericks, who had been a ways off, rushed up and joined the scrum.
So these five guys are kind of chest bumping in that way guys do when tempers flare in the heat of competition when Jackson, who had been wandering around with his hand in the air, acknowledging his own foul, notices what's up and also rushes over, mostly to try to break up the scrum. The whole thing lasts for about two seconds before the refs pull Terry away and break it up, and that's it. No punches thrown, minimal shoving.
Next page: Jackson T'd up for being Stephen Jackson. Plus: Brewers skipper ignores team chemistry angle!