Please, this guy is must have been watching the game through his Hugo suit. West wasn’t totally out of the play. Manu was 5 feet in front of him on the same side of the court and West jumped to make a play on the ball. If, in fact, as this guy says Manu had already gotten by his defender (which I don’t necessarily agree with) then Robert SHOULD screen West because Manu would then have a layup.

Blah, blah, blah. Whatever. I don’t think there is anything classless about Horry’s foul even if he knew West had an injury. If it was that bad, then West shouldn’t have been on the court anyway. As Jeff Van Gundy said - I think it was Jeff -, it was no different than the screen Chandler laid on Parker to start Game 5.

As for the fans being classless, no argument there. Anybody, and it certainly wasn’t everybody, who was celebrating was in the wrong. On the other hand, it is the unfortunate part of sports in our country that the other team too often gets painted as villains and West is certainly tops on our list in this series. When the villain is taken down people tend to celebrate without really thinking first.

please, this was not intentional. yes horry leaned in a bit, because he didn’t want to get run over by west who wasn’t looking where the hell he was going. if horry didn’t set the screen manu would have been double teamed by his defender and west at the corner. horry is not our go to guy, manu is. why the hell would we pass it to horry when he isn’t on the 3 point line? he isn’t a low post guy.

just like the commentators said in game 5 when chandler kneed parker in the tailbone on that high screen, duncan should have communicated that chandler was there. if anything, someone should have communicated to west that horry was there so he didn’t get blindsided by a screen.

get out of here with that intentional crap, you are sounding like the suns fans last year when they knew horry knocked nash into the table on purpose to get diaw and amare off the bench so they’d get suspended. yeah i know, this sounds stupid too.

ummmmm, dont hornets live in a nest rather than a hive?

after seeing it again a few times, i am having some problems with what rob did.

1 yes, i think it was intentional. he definitely wanted to give west a shot. i also think that he was well aware of who was coming and what his injury condition was. that said, the whole thing was probably within the bounds of basketball law. bob got a foul and he deserved one, but not sure how much more penalty could have been justified. 2 calling it a screen also seems a bit of a stretch to me. who was he trying to screen for? manu was still a few feet away. and dont you screen the driver’s man instead of your own man? i guess its close enough that rob could have been trying to wall off a driving lane for manu , but i cant say that i believe that 100%. 3 was it a cheap shot? im not so sure how cheap, maybe a little – but probably not worthy of a suspension or flagrant or anything like that. this is playoff basketball after all. hot and get hit.

the bottom line for me is that i probably not have done this myself, so i’m not gonna jump up to bob’s defense too much. if you watch him close enough, he has a number of borderline type plays throughout the course of any game – and i dont mean just the nash thing from last year either.

i also think that this site would be going bonkers had chandler or west done the same to one of our guys.

Um, Chandler did do this to Tony in Game 5. And got called for a foul.

But, it was my impression that Rob was thinking he was walling of a lane for Manu. I do think he tried to bang him but I don’t think he expected West to jump.

Do we bring RoHo to screen Kobe? Or maybe hack at that injured pinkie?

I’m a little conflicted about the play as well. Here’s a link to it on YouTube (1:47):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfQZHMU5qAw

Watching it, it looks like Ginobili has shaken Pargo and is looking to drive baseline. West is backpedaling to try to cut off the baseline when Horry decides to screen West. It looks to me like the correct basketball play; if Ginobili continues to the basket, he would have had an open lane. He was probably expecting RoHo to flash to the paint and was looking to pass, which is why he pulled up, but since Horry wasn’t available, he threw it crosscourt instead. If West doesn’t crumple to the ground, I don’t think anyone would have noticed the play at all.

That said, Horry certainly puts some extra gusto into the screen, and sort of leads with his shoulder and really plants his elbows into the small of West’s back. I can only speculate that Horry was thinking he get 2 birds with one stone (or as Chuck Norris/Manu Ginobili would, 2 stones with one bird): free Ginobili for a layup AND get a nice, clean, legal shot in on their ailing big man.

In the end, I think the contact was actually pretty minor. If West’s condition is fragile enough that such a play would cause injury, then he was bound to be injured sooner or later.

There wasn’t anything malicious about that play. Horry was just playing old school old man basketball. People get indignant over the most insignificant shit….

I guess Horry should have just pulled up a chair for West and made sure he was comfortable. Maybe ask him that if he wanted inside position to just ask him and Horry would move out of the way for him.

That was an old school pick being set. deal the fuck with you fuckin crybabies. If a guy is out there playing hurt are we supposed to take it easy on him? We’re in a fucking elimination game.

I’m really upset at the handful of fans that made San Antonio look like a city full of cheesedicks. I guarantee that was a small % of the crowd that was chanting for Horry

Please, I saw it live, I’ve seen the tape. It was a clean play.

If you replace Robert with Tim, Fab or Kurt in that same play, then no one makes mention of this maneuver. However, because it was done by one of our “supposed” dirty players, it’s an issue.

Secondly, the chanting was unfortunate and stupid. However, that same crowd cheered when West got back to his feet.

Lastly, if your back is so fragile that you can’t handle a screen, then don’t jump up into it… or better yet, don’t suit up for the game.

From a Suns fan: Ultimately, I don’t think this is a “dirty” play. It’s not clean-it was a foul-but it doesn’t strike me as anything more than a hard foul. I doubt Horry wanted to injure him, though I’m pretty sure he wanted it to hurt.

I think the real problems here are:

1) A lot of people still have the Nash play in their head, which makes this look more like a trend than an isolated incident.

2) Manu pulled up. If he had driven, it would have looked more like part of the play as opposed to a deliberate “cheap shot.”

3) Horry, at this point in his career, doesn’t contribute much else, so people only associate him with “big shots” and now “cheap shots.” Duncan fouls like this, and no one thinks it’s intentional because he wouldn’t risk it. Losing Horry isn’t much of a loss (comparatively).

4) The chanting didn’t help.

5) West was hurt.

6) Most importantly, I think many people just don’t like this kind of “playoff” or “man’s” basketball and so they hate to see it succeed. They consider it poor sportsmanship and nothing to do with athletic ability or basketball skill. And I tend to agree with that viewpoint. I’d much prefer a cleaner (what some people call “soft”) game.

Nonetheless, this is how NBA basketball is played. It is less physical than it used to be, but it is still a “man’s” game. And the Spurs are particularly adept at playing that kind of basketball (and that is not to say that’s all they’re good at). This Horry foul is just another, typical example that had a lot of contributing factors to make it stand out. But it wasn’t dirty or really even exceptional by NBA standards. Every team plays this way.

I think many people just have a skewed conception of NBA sportsmanship.