From the Sports Guy

I don’t always like The Sports Guy, mainly because he is flaming Boston homer, but he hit this one on the head about the Spurs-Suns series and the ridiculous tactic known only as “Hack-a-Shaq.” Check it out:

The Dirty Pool Award for “Scummiest And Most Indefensible In-Game Move”
Name me one good/fun/useful thing that comes from hack-a-Shaq. You can’t. It’s not entertaining, it ruins the flow of the game, it’s dirty pool, and it sucks to watch. How have they not fixed this loophole? Really, it’s OK to bear-hug someone as they’re running up the court? Why can’t we give officials the leeway to say, “Look, you did that intentionally, even if we can’t technically prove it, and we are penalizing you for it”? I just hate it. I hate it. I really, really hate it. If I were coaching the Suns, I would be fouling Bowen and Duncan every time and turning it into an “Eff-You” free-throw contest so David Stern had to break away from exchanging late-night e-mails with Clay Bennett to act like a commissioner for 10 minutes and fix this unforgivable tainting of a fantastic series that could have been headed for the Pantheon if not for such a garbage turn of events. That’s not basketball. I can’t stop shaking my head.

(Two people I’m disappointed in: First, Gregg Popovich, the best coach in the league and someone who’s much, much better than this. Shame on you, Pop. And I mean that in the most condescending way possible. And second, Shaq for not telling the refs as well as the Spurs bench, “If this foofer Oberto tries to bear-hug me one more time, I’m just warning you right now, I’m going to run him over like a mack truck and send him to the hospital for the rest of the playoffs.” Come on, Shaq, you have four rings. Make a statement. Don’t put up with this crap. As you can tell, I am passionate about the evils of hack-a-Shaq.)

True. True. After much soul searching, I have found what it is I dislike so much about the San Antonio Sterns. They have NO CLASS. There isn’t a single ounce of it ANYWHERE near the organization… the players, fans, and coaches are just downright dirty. Here’s to hoping they get humiliated in the next round by a team with a better coach than the Suns.