Saturday, February 27, 2010

Kidd Shouldn't have been Rewarded for Charging into Hawks' Coach

(AP photo by Gregory Smith)

An excellent game between the Atlanta Hawks & Dallas Mavericks was marred by an awful play by Jason Kidd last night. With less than two minutes left in the fourth quarter, the Hawks were up 97-95 when Kidd dribbled into Hawks' Coach Mike Woodson. The collision forced an official to call a technical foul on Woodson. Following a brief argument, the Mav's made the technical and eventually won the game in overtime.

Here's what happened-


Yes, Woodson should not have been on the court and as you can see he was trying to get off of it. If his presence on the court impacts the play on the court, then he should certainly be given a technical.

If you watch the video you see that Kidd goes out of his way to run into Woodson. This is not a basketball move since you try to avoid the sideline in case you step, or dribble, out of bounds. That Woodson interfered with the game is not even an issue if you read Kidd's comments where he admits with pride that he dribbled into Woodson.

Unfortunately, coaches, announcers, and internet pundits are now complementing Kidd on making a smart move because it resulted in a point. But what if Woodson avoided the contact and Kidd then stepped out of bounds and lost possession?

And where do you draw the line? What if a fan/coach/player was out of bounds and a player pretended to lose the ball simply to run into them in order to draw a technical foul. Sure, the odds of this are very low, but nevertheless, the official would have to call a technical based on the precedent established last night. Or better yet, a team could have players/coaches stand near the court to entice players to try to run into them.

These questions shouldn't even be considered since they have nothing to do with basketball! The NBA must stop rewarding players for running into people. It's bad basketball and pushes the game a step closer to WWF as players continue to believe that non-basketball actions can influence the outcome.

Sadly, there will be more coverage of Kidd's decision to dribble into Woodson than on Kidd's great effort last night (19 points, 17 assists, and 16 rebounds) .

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