Childress 'went Bill Laimbeer'
TweetYOU know it's bad when an incident from an NBL game is being shown on global television.
How often does that happen?
There's no question Sydney Kings NBA import Josh Childress "lost it" for a split second when he felled Wildcats power forward Jesse Wagstaff late in the third quarter last night at Perth Arena.
In case you missed it, the Wildcats were in control and well on their way to an 84-63 victory when Wagstaff caught an unsighted Childress with a wicked screen under Perth's basket.
Childress went down like a stacked pile of newspapers thrown off a delivery truck.
But unlike those papers, a clearly enraged Childress jumped back to his feet almost instantly and ran at Wagstaff who had caught the ball in the middle of the keyway.
Childress launched himself and dropped the big Jesse to the floor with a flying bump into him, his fore-arm cocked at roughly head height.
Wagstaff hit the floor, the refs ran in quickly, all signalling an unsportsmanlike foul, players milled, exchanged unpleasantries and Childress got thrown out of the game.
His mouth bloodied, the veteran of 391 NBA games applauded the referees for their efforts which, I am sure, was more reflective of what led up to the incident than how they handled it.
"I thought it was a pretty cheap shot," Wildcats coach Trevor Gleeson said on TV, watching the incident played back.
"There’s no room for that in our game. I hope the league takes a stand on it because it wasn’t deserved."
Ejected, Childress was reported and, going on precedents, I think he will cop a game, a suspended two-or-three additional games and a fine in the $2,000 vicinity.
Of course, social media went beserk - I'm surprised a certain club CEO didn't immediately tweet a picture from the incident but he must not have been wearing his photographer hat - and even Childress got involved with this:
"@NBL it was very clear who runs the league and the officials tonight. Maybe the best officiated game I've ever been a part of."
Not sure that will help much and watching from the outside and with no partricular axe to grind, I did think the Kings were hard-done-by a few times.
It's one thing for Sydney's composure to falter under the relentless pressure. It's another thing to wonder how often that pressure was completely legal.
But that's one for refs boss Mal Cooper to ponder.
It's probably no coincidence how often when an incident occurs, Wagstaff or Shawn Redhage are in the vicinity.
These guys aren't choir boys by any stretch and as much as they are adored in Perth, they are reviled in equal measure at seven other locales.
That said, the way I saw this specific incident - just the incident itself - was Wagstaff set a hard pick which caught Childress and rocked his world.
Childress' reaction was way over-the-top.
I didn't see much wrong with Wagstaff's screen and neither did the officials.
I saw a lot wrong with Childress' response.
I can't speak to what occurred before to lead up to that because I'm not privvy to it.
Suffice to say, the world quickly saw it too, on ESPN it was a huge hit today, on SportsCenter and it even made it to Pardon The Interruption.
Co-host Tony Kornheiser described the hit as "medieval" and Mike Wilbon said Childress had gone "Bill Laimbeer", wondering aloud if basketball in the Australian league allowed some rugby principles. (I love these guys)
Kornheiser said 5-to-10 games (penalty) in the NBA, Wilbon suggested maybe two.
(In fairness, PTI has had Matt Knight's Wildcats' singlet on display in its background previously so it wasn't the NBL's debut on the program!)
From all accounts, Childress is a great guy off the floor and a terrific teammate.
As Perth captain Damian Martin said: “One play doesn’t determine a guy, and that’s one he probably wishes he could take back.”
Trust Damo to get it right.
Let's not condemn a guy for losing his cool and momentarily seeing red. He will have to deal with its aftermath as it is.