Who's Throwing Elbows Now?

I sat down today and was watching the press conference with Avery Johnson about Jerry Stackhouse and the suspension that was imposed on him. Avery brought up a point that Dirk was fouled just as hard at the beginning of game 4. He said that the NBA was not being consistent with their suspensions. After he said that Dirk was fouled just as hard I wanted to go back and review the exact play that he was talking about. That's right, I have TiVo...and Slow-Mo. Sure enough the 2nd play of game 4 Shaq fouled Dirk with a hard elbow to the face. As you might have guessed, Dirk was knocked to the floor. If you can go back and watch it I encourage you to do so because it's not that pretty.

So I was wondering...why Dallas? Is it me or does it seem that Dallas is being targeted more than most teams in the league? It's not just officials either. For those of you that remember, during the Phoenix series, Josh Howard was being called out by the Suns for tripping one of their players. Turns out...their player tripped over himself. That's right. Himself! How many people remember the Reggie Evans/Chris Kaman incident? You can see where I'm going with this. Reggie grabbed Chris in that area and nothing happened to him. That's right. Reggie never even got a foul for that one. When Jason Terry does that to Michael Finley...Suspension! What's the difference you ask? Open hand vs closed hand. Anyways, the point is that there have been several incidents where no one had been called yet the Mavs have been called out for every single call. What gives?

With all the foul calls, suspensions, and accusations against Dallas by officials, teams, and the NBA in general you have to ask yourself...who's throwing elbows now?