Letters to the Editor
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Bravo for raising the question
I think this artificial leg debate will get emotional, and I'm glad you offered thoughts on it before it did.
It seems to me that the leg would be an inherent disadvantage, if no other reason than it can't provide a little extra in a close race. But I have no idea, and just for the sake of clarity around the issue, I'd lean toward banning it.
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Robert Horry is a genius.
Yeah, they call him "Big Shot Rob," but he's not as vital to the Spurs' grind-it-out game as Bowen. So Horry throws the hip, he puts a little scare into Nash, and on top of that, he just might get a couple Suns suspended for a game due to ridiculously rigid league policy!
By the way, King, didja catch Raja "Clothesline" Bell talking about Horry's "hockey foul"? Priceless.
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Shaq Fu
Can anyone explain to me why in the hell TNT invited an apparently insane Shaq on to their great show? He was silent during studio shots and had to be begged to contribute anything and then during highlights he kept making high-pitched weird noises. It was as if an ESPN commentator had taken a triple tab of acid and started drooling all over the mic.
(I think Nash must already be a cyborg to be making those amazing blind passes...)
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Cheap-Shot Bob
NoWAY Amare should be suspended...it happened right in front of the bench and he did move toward the scene of the crime, but he wasn't really 'on the court' because he was just moving toward court sideline. If the NBA suspends Amare along with Horry, it will be a complete miscarriage of justice. That was the most blatant on-court cheap shot against a star player in some time.
For his own safety, Horry should not make the trip to Phoenix for game 5 or 7.
A couple of those Nash passes down the stretch appeared to defy laws of physics. It's going to be a raucous rest of the series as these teams are definetely bringing the hate.
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good day, suns shine!
dear king:
i just hope all of the folks who took a spurs-pistons final for granted are as gracious as you if it doesn't turn out that way. anyone who thinks the suns lucked out last night has got to be out of their mind. that was a pure guts and willpower win. in fact, if there has been any game-changing fortune in this series, it was san antonio's good luck that the suns didn't have a better cut man in the corner to patch up nash in phoenix. otherwise the series could easily be 3-1 suns.
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Nash Needs To Get A Ring
Horry has one hand already filled up.
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Are
Prosthetic middle legs fair?
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Ethics Smethics
The ethical dilemma and pending debates regarding prosthetics will be interesting. People a lot smarter than me will have interesting takes. I hadn't considered, for example, that atheletes might actually cut off their own limbs for a competitive advantage.
But I wouldn't have thought atheletes would take horse growth hormones either.
In the end, the spectators decide. Well, it's actually more complicated than that, of course. People with money will eagerly rush pass ethical boundaries in order to make more money. Participants, who also stand to make a lot of money and spectators will eagerly follow along.
The interim solution will be to have dual meets, one for semi-drugged, humans; the other for the pharma-techno, semi-human du jour. The two will perhaps meet in championship runs at a 500K person-capacity stadium until such races are no longer interesting, the humans unable to compete. They will take the place of greyhounds.
The coming debates will be interesting, but completely irrelevant.
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Give the guy a break
If a competitive advantage can't be shown, is it just discrimination not to let Pistorius compete?
Yes, assuming there is in fact some "athletic" participation on his part. I think it's reasonable to place restrictions on the prosthetic legs, but as long as he's the one providing the locomotion I see no problem with it in principle. It's like that golfer a while back (Casey somebody) who got to participate in PGA events while riding a golf cart. If not being able to walk was a competitive advantage, it didn't do a whole lot for him.
What to do at that seemingly inevitable point in history when technology -- not potentially damaging drugs, but good-old-fashioned engineering and ingenuity -- definitely makes it possible for athletes to run faster, jump higher and be stronger.
Haven't we already passed that point?
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Horry, still a thug
It shouldn't surprise anyone that Robert Horry would take a cheap shot; he's had a history of nasty behavior, somehow miraculously eclipsed by a very suspect reputation as a clutch player...
Some of the more interesting stats on his resume: Horry took a swing at Utah's Jeff Hornacek in 1997; screamed obscenities and threw a towel in the face of his coach, Danny Ainge; then got fined for shoving a cameraman.
As far as how "clutch" he is, sure, he's made some big shots, but, like most NBA players, he's missed far more than he's made. It's just that no one seems to remember the misses, like his 2-for-38 from three-point territory In the 2003 playoffs.
Yes, he has a lot of rings, but isn't it possible that that has an awful lot to do with the other players on the teams he's had the good luck to be a part of? Hakeem Olajuwon in Houston, Shaquille O'Neal in Los Angeles, and Tim Duncan in San Antonio, for starters...
And yes, he just became the all-time leader in three-pointers made during the NBA Finals. But a closer look reveals that Horry has made only 227 of 634 of his playoff triples, roughly 35% shooting. Why isn't he famous as the hooligan who's missed 407 three-point shots in the Finals?
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Race?
Why is it always about race. Legs or no legs or fake legs, it's all about race. Always. I'm glad I've had this pointed out.
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Steven Wright once dated a girl
Who had a fake leg with a real foot on it.
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Suns victory pure guts, will... and getting help from refs and Spurs missing open jumpers
As happy as I was to see the Spurs lose Game 4, analysis floating around the web has confirmed my suspicion that the Suns were the beneficiaries of all the close calls down the stretch. Of the 5 50/50 calls made, they all went in the Suns favor.
And San Antonio put together a nice choke job in the last 3 minutes. The end was heartening for me if only to show that the officiating really is random, so maybe the Spurs will be on the downside a couple more times this series, and also that the Spurs can choke just like everybody else.
Bring on Game 5!