Basketball players do a lot of things very well. Fighting, however, is not one of those things.
If there ever was an incident that personified the sometimes perceived on-court faux toughness of the NBA, it’s what happened Wednesday night in Portland between the Blazers and the Los Angeles Clippers.
The skirmish began in the third quarter when Clippers guard Chris Paul went for a loose ball underneath the basket. Paul may or may not have executed a low blow on Blazers big man Chris Kaman. It’s tough to tell. There was no grey area in Kaman’s mind, however, as he quickly responded by delivering a two-handed shove to Paul.
Then, for some inexplicable reason, Kaman — who has a full foot and nearly 100 pounds on the smaller Paul — just ran away. One more time for effect: He shoved Paul and immediately ran away like a 4-year-old, either fearing any sort of retribution from Paul or thinking that if he ran back down the court like nothing happened then no one would notice.
Well, people noticed. Immediately, the Clippers came to Paul’s defense and got in Kaman’s face, and Paul quickly jumped to his feet to offer Kaman a piece of his mind. As this was happening, Portland’s LaMarcus Aldridge did his best to patrol the scene and maybe gave Clippers forward Glen Davis a shove. Davis, playing up his “Big Baby” nickname, then delivered a flop of embarrassing proportions, as apparently all it takes to knock down a 289-pound man is a shift in the wind.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RH6YrMnAyfQ
This is far from the first time Davis has been exposed as a flopper. In fact, that’s exactly what Leandro Barbosa did less than a month ago after Davis embellished during a game vs. the Golden State Warriors.
Thumbnail photo via Craig Mitchelldyer/USA TODAY Sports Images
