Stackhouse suspended, Mavericks flee South Beach...

[Scurrilous]

Stackhouse Suspended for Game 5

<snip>

"Reeling from two consecutive losses to the Miami Heat, the Dallas Mavericks learned Friday that their toughest player, Jerry Stackhouse, had been suspended by the National Basketball Association for Game 5 on Sunday.

Stackhouse hit the 330-pound Shaquille O'Neal, who was driving for a layup, and sent him sprawling into photographers in the third quarter of Game 4 on Thursday night.

Originally called a flagrant foul, penalty 1, the league upgraded it, deeming Stackhouse's contact "clearly excessive," Stu Jackson, the vice president of basketball operations for the N.B.A., said.

"It's just a bunch of baloney, for lack of a better word," Dallas Coach Avery Johnson said on his weekly radio show. "It's just sickening. Our fans should be upset; our players will be. It's just humiliating."

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/17/sports/basketball/17nba.html

Mavs move from Miami to Fort Lauderdale

<snip>

Coach orders change of venue to get team to refocus

"Dallas Mavericks coach Avery Johnson was serious about ending his team’s “vacation mentality.”

At the coach’s order, the club packed up and left its downtown Miami hotel on Friday and moved to Fort Lauderdale.

“That’s really ... to kind of refocus a little bit,” said Donnie Nelson, the team’s president of basketball operations. “It’s a little bit of training camp, bunker mentality, which I think is sort of a good call.”

<snip>

"Fort Lauderdale certainly doesn’t have the same distractions, challenges of say downtown, close to the beach and all that,” Nelson said. “I think sometimes you have to make a change for change sake. This just gives us an opportunity to get back to a little bit more of a training camp type of regimen, refocus and completely cut out the distractions.”

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/13372274/



"Thank you, Jerry. Appreciate it." :thumbsup:

[yowzayowzayowza]

1. "Baloney"

Kind word. Is there any foul short of "clearly excessive" that coulda stopped Shaq?

[aaronbees]

2. let's see....

how about not fouling? or not fouling flagranty?

I think the suspension is pathetic, though.

[1gobluedem]

3. I think this says it all...

When the series started in Dallas, Stackhouse was a major factor. He received three stitches in Game 1 after O'Neal fouled him as he drove for a layup. (That was not deemed a flagrant foul.) He responded by running off 10 points in 79 seconds during the second quarter of Game 2 to lift the Mavericks to a 2-0 series lead.

<snip>

Johnson, who was not available to reporters after the suspension was announced, railed against the "foolishness that goes on" in the league, and the inconsistency of the N.B.A.'s disciplinary decisions during his radio show.

He cited instances during the regular season when calls seemed to favor O'Neal or the Cavaliers' LeBron James over the Mavericks' reserve center, D. J. Mbenga.

"Shaquille O'Neal does the same thing, he gets a slap on the wrist," Johnson said. "I've seen it before, it's been around forever. Certain players get royal treatment and certain players don't."

[zonkers]

4. Mavs failed to take it to Wade when he had 5 fouls in the 3rd quarter.

This was a huge blunder. I blame Avery Johnson. Heat could not have come back to beat them w/out him.

[Scurrilous]

5. Welcome to DU zonkers.

:thumbsup:

[zonkers]

6. Thanks Scurrilous.

[Scurrilous]

7. Fear of South Beach:

<snip>

"NBA players get used to a certain kind of living on the road. Five-star hotels in prime locations, their own room to spread out and get comfortable in, and their friends and family housed somewhere down the hall.

But after the Mavericks dropped two straight games to fall into a 2-2 tie in the NBA Finals, coach Avery Johnson decided to downgrade their digs and move farther from the distractions of a decadent, friend-filled hotel.

The team packed up and moved north to Ft. Lauderdale, about 45 minutes away from American Airlines Arena.

It's not exactly life as usual.

"In college we stayed at nicer hotels than where we're at," guard Devin Harris said.

Instead of single rooms, each player has a roommate. And while there was no curfew in place, guard Darrell Armstrong pointed out that there was none needed; the players weren't allowed to leave the property.

"It's not a suggestion, `Please don't go out,' " Armstrong said. "It's just, `Don't leave the property.' There's no curfew when you can't leave. Stay up as late as you want to! You can watch the `Late Show,' or whatever. You can see the uncut videos on BET, just don't leave the property."

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/sports/14843714.htm