You're seriously going to condone Miller's body check?

yes

Another dirty hit not called by the refs.

If Battier plowed into Oden, Oden would either A) Break both his knee caps, in which case we would be justified in being ticked; or B) Not notice he’d been hit, because he’s a beast (when healthy).

he would have ripped that dude’s heart right out of his chest and showed it to him before he died

including my own. Oh wait your not Blazer fan, now it makes sense ;)

I’ll pass on the save the children yada, yada though. You really want to teach kids a lesson then show them the replay and tell them how much money it cost Miller in the end. More than what you made this year.

It’s spilled milk at this point, but worth debating all season long because I think fans need to make their voices heard about techs and suspensions. The NBA game is now officially softer then Euroleague and that is just plain pathetic.

What if FDR did not lose the use of his legs due to adult onset Polio, but instead had his legs crushed fighting a humanoid Nazi robot before the onset of WW2. Then instead of spending all those wasted years working on an atomic bomb, Oppenheimer and Bohrs and Fermi had instead ventured to create an American fighting robot to be piloted by FDR himself.

Would you have been fine with American War Bonds being used to finance this?

But condoning this action isn’t necessarily disputing the punishment.

I don’t care about a, “suppose it was this guy and that guy scenario”. By definition being a Blazer fan(atic) implies one-sided views that may not be equally applied in all circumstances.

Bottom line for me is that I’ve seen Blake Griffin play a few times and he consistently throws people around, pushes smaller players and in short is very physical in his style. The fact that Miller decided he wasn’t going to take it makes me proud he’s a Blazer. Andre showed how a tough, competitive, veteran handles a situation like that and we all noticed that Griffin didn’t push him again!..

I respect the actions of Andre Miller and support his effort to show people we won’t be pushed around!

WAY TO GO ANDRE!!!

GO BLAZERS!!!

and there had already been a dustup with a player tossed? Can’t win a game from the locker room. That’s what a vet would do. A half decent coach (VDN.. eh) would tell him to not retaliate. Maybe Baron Davis told him don’t worry, I’ll settle this on the streets of LA later.

Dude this stuff was soooo 2 days ago. Move on or quit watching.

The Clip’s game was the turning point of Portland’s season, so far

and that rugby play will go down in history as the most memorable from that game, by far

You know what I don’t condone?

..a cocky rookie pushing around a respect veteran and then using the excuse, “I’m just big. I have to push people around.” Sorry, that didn’t work 20 years ago and it doesn’t work today. Andre did the right thing. Who cares about Blake’s injury. If he was so worried about retribution, he wouldn’t be shoving little guys around like he’s an out of control Hulk or something.

and would be up in arms if someone did that to a blazer.

but i’m sorta glad he did it anyway because it helps us move a step further from that “soft” rep.

What Dre did snapped the Blazers out of their funk. I got really tired of Blake getting away with every damn call he got down in the post.

But I also don’t think it was completely unreasonable. He didn’t take a swing at him or anything. It was a hard check, the kind you’d see 100 of per hockey game and 6 per basketball game if you’re paying attention. I think it looked worse than it was because Griffen went flying like a little girl and it was in space.

But I bet we could find several solid hits between big men fighting for position every single game. Big difference is that the person getting hit is usually holding position and doesn’t go flying.

As for whether or not Dre was justified at all at taking a shot? I think probably yes. It’s a contact game and he was getting pushed around. He needed to establish that he wasn’t going to continue to get pushed around and got in a solid check. It’s understandable.

And personally, I liked the game a lot better when teams were bitter enemies. I don’t like this namby-pamby, everybody likes everybody else crap. I can watch that video of Pippen dunking on Ewing and then standing over him on an endless loop.

Yes absolutely. The league is way to soft. Everyone needs to stop being a wus…
Blake wasn’t hurt. No harm no foul.

im glad andre stood up to blake. i would have rather had him actually throw a punch and nail blake in the face than ram him when he isnt looking but whatever.

But wow, you’re missing the whole point of why people appreciated Andre’s position and the action against Griffin that he felt was necessary.

That being that the previous two trips down the floor Griffen had shoved Andre hard out of the way in order to jump for a rebound. The second shove threw him into another player which could have been dangerous. Both times Andre tried to get the ref’s attention and they did nothing. So, he retaliated in order to get Griffin to realize that shoving people out of the way to get position isn’t legal in the NBA, isn’t respectful whatsoever and regardless of the idiot refs, he wasn’t going to get away with it.

The thing you have to remember is to take things into context instead of looking at one play and declaring the aggressor in the wrong. On balance, Griffin had been shoving and coming over the back of people all night. He does that every night. He just had a dunk taken away by the officials for practically riding a defender’s back to get to the basket and he just grins about it as if his ability to play horsey is some big joke.

If someone were to make a video compilation of all the times Griffin fouled someone to get position for a rebound or put-back this season alone, it would probably last longer than it would take to read this entire thread. The guy is a cocky rookie that gets treated like a star when he shouldn’t and someone’s going to get seriously hurt by his determination to continue being a jerk. Athleticism is one thing, but doing what Griffin does can’t be characterized as that in my opinion and his actions – along with anyone else who habitually puts others in dangerous situations for an advantage night in and night out – are the dangerous and malicious problem in the NBA.

If you can’t handle it, go watch the WNBA. The NBA is soft and it is because of weenies like this. What happened to the days of Maurice Lucas throwing punches??? The feminization of our culture is manifested in many different ways, and this is one of them. I’m going to go puke.

And I’m happy to oblige!

Here’s the short version: (1) It was a cheap shot; (2) he deserved the one-game suspension; and (3) I can totally understand why you guys are defending what he did.

And here’s the long version: Was it a cheap shot? Yeah. It was a non-basketball play (more like a hockey play), delivered with excessive force against a guy who didn’t see it coming. That’s cheap. It deserved a suspension, because the league has made pretty clear that they don’t want this kind of thing to become commonplace in the league, even if it used to be rampant in the NBA back in “the good old days.”

That said, I can totally understand why you guys are defending him. Forgive the analogy to a similar occurrence in Utah Jazz land, but it reminds me of a game a couple years ago (also, forgive my lack of memory about the specifics):

I can’t remember who we were playing, and I can’t remember the players involved (other than Deron Williams), but it still sticks out at one of my favorite plays that season. Somebody on the opposing team (I seem to remember it being one of the Graham brothers) had just delivered a dirty foul on one of our guys. I don’t remember whether it was called a flagrant or not (it certainly was one), but it was definitely excessive and uncalled for, and Deron took exception to someone going after one of his guys like that. So on the next Jazz possession, he passed the ball off to initiate the offense, and immediately went over and delivered a HARD (and, by today’s standards, definitely dirty) screen on the guy who committed the foul. The refs caught it and called the offensive foul, but it was hands down my favorite Deron Williams turnover ever. He did it to let them know that he wasn’t gonna let anyone push him or his teammates around, that if they wanted to play dirty and deliver cheap shots to us, they were gonna get some in return. It was awesome.

So I can totally understand why Andre did what he did, and why many of you do defend and condone it. It was basically just an amped-up version of Deron’s play, except Andre was sticking up for himself rather than for a teammate. I’m not saying this should become a regular practice or anything like that, but sometimes you feel like you’ve gotta send a message to the other guy, and unfortunately, there’s really not another efficient way to do it. But after you send your message, you should be prepared for whatever message the league office ends up sending to you.

Miller had to get up a head of steam to do it, because anything less wouldn’t have put Griffin on the floor. He would have just stumbled back a bit, then laughed in Miller’s face.

Like everything Andre Miller does, that shove was measured. Unlike some of the hysterical responses to it…

And the league is soft these days.

Some day you’ll have to teach your (boy) children to grow up and be tough. Life for most people is not a given, you have to earn every inch of it …….and while you are doing this, you may sometimes have to forcefully demand respect.
  Blake Griffin does not need you to defend him. He will live and flourish with new found respect for Andre Miller.
     tissue?

a. it WAS a cheap shot, and deserved to be punished
b. Griffin deserved what he got, so yes, I condone AND salute Miller’s action
c. This whole mess is proof the NBA officials are inept at their jobs
d. Oden would never behave like that, so that argument is moot.

Also the whole rookie vs. veteran argument makes no sense. So if Barron Davis had elbowed Miller he wouldn’t have minded because they are both vets? yeah right.

Forget about respecting a player simply because he’s hung around the league. Oh wow a journeyman that has never won a playoff series. His signature move is throwing his arms into a player near the hoop and flailing instead of trying to score. Respect talent, recognize game. BamBam GriffDog has only played a month and his career is already more dynamic then “that guy that was traded for Iverson.” He might actually make the all-star game as a Clipper and he’s going to be known around the world when he makes Team USA in 2012 and dunks all over Team Spain like a bald eagle taking a dump on a plate of paella.

Miller should have been suspended for the rest of the season.