By Gregg Doyel
CBS SportsLine.com National Columnist
Tell Gregg your opinion!
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Doyel: Basketball's terrorist
Bruce Bowen is a dirty snake willing to end another player's career just to win a basketball game. Or he's spastic, unable to control his flailing limbs.
Those are the choices.
Video confirms those as the only alternatives -- serpent or spaz -- and throughout this story there will be links of Bowen in action. See for yourself.
The NBA has already made its choice, suspending Robert Horry for two games for his uncharacteristic goonery but leaving Bowen alone as he makes his way through the Phoenix lineup, one slithering sucker-shot at a time.
By doing nothing to Bowen, perhaps the NBA believes he is spastic, unable to control his body movements and therefore innocent of the mayhem he leaves behind. Apparently the NBA sees Bowen like one of those really bad drivers who causes a pile-up and then dodders off, blissfully unaware of the wreckage in his rear-view mirror.
My opinion? Surely you've figured it out by now. My opinion is Bowen is a goon, a menace, a bad guy who is going to end someone's career if something isn't done to stop him. My opinion is that Bowen's best gift, perhaps his only world-class athletic gift, is to physically intimidate -- to terrorize -- opposing players with willfully injurious tactics while making those tactics seem just unintentional enough to fool the NBA.
Plus, the NBA's stupid.
You have to be, NBA. You just have to be. You have access to the same clips I'm about to show CBS SportsLine.com readers, and you've done nothing to reign in the league's dirtiest player. If this were the NFL, where marquee players like quarterbacks and receivers are protected as the fragile investments they are, Bowen would have been fined and suspended to within an inch of his financial security.
But this is the NBA, and so Bowen has been allowed to jeopardize the careers of such stars as Vince Carter, Ray Allen, Steve Nash, Amare Stoudemire, Steve Francis and Wally Szczerbiak. And Jamal Crawford. And Kobe Bryant.
Of course, Bowen could be a spastic. That's also a possibility. But it's the only other possibility.
Time to see for yourself. God bless YouTube.com.
- First, Bowen's knee to Steve Nash's groin in Game 3 of the Western Conference semifinals. Bowen apologized to Nash and said he'd never do something like that intentionally. Tell it some day to Nash's children. Assuming he can still have kids.
- Earlier in the series, Bowen kicked Amare Stoudemire. Maybe you think this is harmless. Re-think that position. As Stoudemire goes up for an easy dunk, Bowen kicks the back of his right calf, near the ankle. If Bowen hits the Achilles, he could snap it. Stoudemire's career? Over. Bowen concedes the kick but says it was an accident. Look at the video. It looks to me like Bowen co cks his head downward to get a better look at the target area.
[/FONT] - Earlier this season Bowen uncorked his signature dirty move against the Knicks' Steve Francis, splaying his lead foot unnecessarily underneath Francis, injuring Francis when he landed awkwardly on Bowen's foot. Also in that clip, Bowen does the same thing to Francis' teammate, Jamal Crawford -- drawing the ire of Isiah Thomas. And Thomas knows all about dirty play.
- Last season Bowen was getting lit up by Vince Carter for 43 points in 37 minutes when Bowen -- for the second time in a year -- undercut him on a jumper. Ticked, Carter picked up his second technical and was ejected. The Spurs won. (I couldn't find video of Bowen's 2004 undercutting of Carter, but the injury he suffered at the foot of Bowen caused him to miss six games.)
- In March 2006 Bowen kicked Ray Allen after getting tangled with the Sonics star. This came two years after Allen hurt an ankle landing on one of Bowen's ubiquitous feet.
- This one, a compilation of Bowen vs. Kobe Bryant, isn't as sexy as the rest. There is no slam-dunk injury here, but if you watch closely, you'll notice several times where Bowen slips a foot into Bryant's landing zone.
- Finally there's Bowen's karate kick of Wally Szczerbiak's face. Unbelievable.
There you go. You've seen it for yourself. Bruce Bowen has landed vicious blows to various players' head, back, groin, ankle and calf. Bowen's either the dirtiest player in professional sports, or he's a spastic.
And he looks coordinated to me.
http://cbs.sportsline.com/columns/story/10185953
CBS SportsLine.com National Columnist
Tell Gregg your opinion!
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica]
Doyel: Basketball's terrorist
Bruce Bowen is a dirty snake willing to end another player's career just to win a basketball game. Or he's spastic, unable to control his flailing limbs.
Those are the choices.
Video confirms those as the only alternatives -- serpent or spaz -- and throughout this story there will be links of Bowen in action. See for yourself.
The NBA has already made its choice, suspending Robert Horry for two games for his uncharacteristic goonery but leaving Bowen alone as he makes his way through the Phoenix lineup, one slithering sucker-shot at a time.
By doing nothing to Bowen, perhaps the NBA believes he is spastic, unable to control his body movements and therefore innocent of the mayhem he leaves behind. Apparently the NBA sees Bowen like one of those really bad drivers who causes a pile-up and then dodders off, blissfully unaware of the wreckage in his rear-view mirror.
My opinion? Surely you've figured it out by now. My opinion is Bowen is a goon, a menace, a bad guy who is going to end someone's career if something isn't done to stop him. My opinion is that Bowen's best gift, perhaps his only world-class athletic gift, is to physically intimidate -- to terrorize -- opposing players with willfully injurious tactics while making those tactics seem just unintentional enough to fool the NBA.
Plus, the NBA's stupid.
You have to be, NBA. You just have to be. You have access to the same clips I'm about to show CBS SportsLine.com readers, and you've done nothing to reign in the league's dirtiest player. If this were the NFL, where marquee players like quarterbacks and receivers are protected as the fragile investments they are, Bowen would have been fined and suspended to within an inch of his financial security.
But this is the NBA, and so Bowen has been allowed to jeopardize the careers of such stars as Vince Carter, Ray Allen, Steve Nash, Amare Stoudemire, Steve Francis and Wally Szczerbiak. And Jamal Crawford. And Kobe Bryant.
Of course, Bowen could be a spastic. That's also a possibility. But it's the only other possibility.
Time to see for yourself. God bless YouTube.com.
- First, Bowen's knee to Steve Nash's groin in Game 3 of the Western Conference semifinals. Bowen apologized to Nash and said he'd never do something like that intentionally. Tell it some day to Nash's children. Assuming he can still have kids.
- Earlier in the series, Bowen kicked Amare Stoudemire. Maybe you think this is harmless. Re-think that position. As Stoudemire goes up for an easy dunk, Bowen kicks the back of his right calf, near the ankle. If Bowen hits the Achilles, he could snap it. Stoudemire's career? Over. Bowen concedes the kick but says it was an accident. Look at the video. It looks to me like Bowen co cks his head downward to get a better look at the target area.
[/FONT] - Earlier this season Bowen uncorked his signature dirty move against the Knicks' Steve Francis, splaying his lead foot unnecessarily underneath Francis, injuring Francis when he landed awkwardly on Bowen's foot. Also in that clip, Bowen does the same thing to Francis' teammate, Jamal Crawford -- drawing the ire of Isiah Thomas. And Thomas knows all about dirty play.
- Last season Bowen was getting lit up by Vince Carter for 43 points in 37 minutes when Bowen -- for the second time in a year -- undercut him on a jumper. Ticked, Carter picked up his second technical and was ejected. The Spurs won. (I couldn't find video of Bowen's 2004 undercutting of Carter, but the injury he suffered at the foot of Bowen caused him to miss six games.)
- In March 2006 Bowen kicked Ray Allen after getting tangled with the Sonics star. This came two years after Allen hurt an ankle landing on one of Bowen's ubiquitous feet.
- This one, a compilation of Bowen vs. Kobe Bryant, isn't as sexy as the rest. There is no slam-dunk injury here, but if you watch closely, you'll notice several times where Bowen slips a foot into Bryant's landing zone.
- Finally there's Bowen's karate kick of Wally Szczerbiak's face. Unbelievable.
There you go. You've seen it for yourself. Bruce Bowen has landed vicious blows to various players' head, back, groin, ankle and calf. Bowen's either the dirtiest player in professional sports, or he's a spastic.
And he looks coordinated to me.
http://cbs.sportsline.com/columns/story/10185953
