Flagrant fouls, they’re flagrant and they’re uhh….foul.

As I was watching the video showing how Andrew Bynum punched Gerald Wallace’s latest ticket to the injured list, I started thinking about flagrant fouls and how they impact our Orlando Magic.

The NBA defines flagrant fouls as the following-

To be unsportsmanlike is to act in a manner unbecoming to the image of professional basketball. It consists of acts of deceit, disrespect of officials and profanity. The penalty for such action is a technical foul. Repeated acts shall result in expulsion from the game and a minimum fine of $1000. A flagrant foul-penalty (1) is unnecessary contact committed by a player against an opponent. A flagrant foul-penalty (2) is unnecessary and excessive contact committed by a player against an opponent.
http://www.nba.com/analysis/rules_b.html?nav=ArticleList

Think about that, unnecessary contact or unnecessary and excessive contact. It was always my understanding that when a player is defending they should be making a play on the ball, shouldn't any foul where the defensive player is making no attempt at a play on the ball be unnecessary contact? For example Dwight getting grabbed around the waist to prevent a basket, is that even attempting to play basketball?


David Stern has put a lot of effort into increasing scoring and making the game more exciting. Let me ask you this, is it more exciting to watch an offensive player burn a defensive player and have a chance to finish the play or watching some slob grab a leg and hang on for dear life? Is it more exciting to see a great defensive player fly over and erase a mistake by one of his teammates or watch Jeff Foster rehearse for his role in Shawshank Redemption II (The Electric Boogaloo)?

The responsibility needs to be on the defensive player and if they get beat, too bad, they need to work on their agility in the offseason. Those are the guys that should be made to look foolish on the court rather than allowing them to take the easy way out on defense.

The NBA, It's Stache-tastic!

Ok, so can we talk about Mike Dunleavy’s mustache for a minute? Seriously, the fact that he is sporting what appears to be a fake eyebrow on his upper lip either represents everything that is wrong about the NBA or everything that is gloriously right about the NBA! I’m personally leaning toward the latter. My interest in the game initially was watching my favorite team play. But I found myself drawn to Dunleavy’s stache like I’m drawn to the first few episodes of “American Idol.” In other words, it was highly disturbing, yet fascinating, so I couldn’t turn away. In fact, I got upset when he was taken out of the game or didn’t have the ball, because the camera had no excuse to be focusing on him. Still, even when it wasn’t on camera, I knew it was there. I felt its presence.

Actually, it is amazing to me that his teammates haven’t tied him down and shaved that thing off for him. Seriously, how can any of his teammates look at him with a straight face? At least Jeff Foster is big and mean and looks like a rock front man. In his case, a stache only adds to the aura. But with Dunleavy...geez...anyone remember that episode of “Friends” where Chandler tries to grow a mustache like Tom Selleck? This is worse…much, much worse. But hey, maybe it’s a strategic thing. Perhaps the opponent guarding Dunleavy is so distracted by the stache that he takes his eye off the ball, giving Dunleavy an advantage on offense.

Oh, and here’s a bonus….we now have a long, lanky, wild-haired white shooter to fill the role that Adam Morrison was supposed to fill. Now, while I would never compare Dunleavy’s stache sporting ability to Morrison’s, I will say that Dunleavy is well on his way to infamy if he can stay healthy on the court and add an inch or two to that stache.

Please Note: I attempted to find a photo of Dunleavy’s lip gerbil, but apparently it’s power is already so great, it cannot be captured using still photography.

BREAKING NEWS: Someone in the know got their hands on a photo of the gerbil.