Teague....Dirty?

[Marvin24Williams]

You be the judge. Many people have been saying that he had no buisness walking under Rose while he was in mid-air because he could've easily injured Roses ankle if he stepped on Teagues foot. I personally think he had no intention to do that and walked under him on accident.

Edited May 6, 2011 by WhassupHawks

[somegsuguy]

This is from SI.com:

Some curious last-second plays in Game 2s

Ron Artest’s clothesline of Dallas guard J.J. Barea has already received a ton of attention, so let’s start with a little-noticed play that happened with 6.8 seconds to go in Chicago’s Game 2 victory against Atlanta on Wednesday:

I’ve watched this play a dozen times now after a couple of folks alerted me to it via Twitter, and I’m still not exactly sure what I’m seeing. This is not an overtly dirty play by Jeff Teague. He doesn’t stick a forearm into Derrick Rose’s chest, hip-check him or take a kick at the Chicago point guard’s sore left ankle. But the more I watch it, the more it looks like Teague makes up his mind early that he’s going to keep striding forward while Rose is airborne, regardless of whether he gets called for a foul or knocks Rose off balance. It’s not easy for a speedster like Teague to stop on a dime, but upon repeated viewing, it doesn’t look like he even tries to stop at all. Calling this an undercut is a bit strong, especially because Teague appears to shade himself slightly to Rose’s right side instead of hitting him straight on.

But you’re not crazy, I don’t think, if you suspect Teague’s intentions here might have been something other than pristine.

Also, it’s fair to ask why Rose was even on the floor with the clock running out. This is nitpicky, I realize, since Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau ran with most of his core guys until the final buzzer, and he may have been forced to call a timeout to remove Rose. Atlanta coach Larry Drew emptied his bench with 54 seconds left after Jamal Crawford fouled Rose; the Bulls were up 85-73 when Drew tossed up the white flag. Thibodeau didn’t have a substitute ready to check in at that point, and the clock did not stop again until Teague’s foul in the above video.

As I was watching the game, I was begging Thibodeau to take a timeout or have someone foul intentionally to get Rose off the floor. There was no reason for him to play that last minute, and if he’s out there with a bad ankle, it opens up the possibility of Rose’s hurting himself further on some hard foul or fluky landing — the very thing that nearly happened here. If you watch the tape beyond where this clip cuts off, you can see Joakim Noah giving Rose a sad, inquisitive look, perhaps wondering why the MVP even bothered to take a jump shot and leave himself vulnerable.

As for Artest, I’ve seen a few tweeters suggesting he was merely trying to wrap up Barea, possibly to take an intentional foul, even though the Lakers had clearly surrendered by that point. Put it this way: If Artest was really trying to hug Barea, he missed so badly that we have to question his hand-eye coordination. Yes, he sort of held on to Barea after the initial contact to prevent him from falling the floor and even gave him a gentle pat on the back, but he did not try to slow his arm down until his hand nailed Barea’s face.

Artest is probably gone for Game 3, which has actual consequences for the Lakers. They will be smaller regardless of whether Phil Jackson starts Matt Barnes (the more likely adjustment) or shifts Kobe Bryant to small forward for longer stretches. Either way, Dallas might be more comfortable having Shawn Marion defend Bryant much more in Game 3 than he has so far. Jason Kidd, Kobe’s primary defender, can probably guard Barnes more comfortably than he can Artest, who can post up Kidd. And Marion is the natural matchup for Kobe when the Lakers play three guards.

(UPDATE: The NBA ruled Artest’s foul as a Flagrant Foul Two and suspended him without pay from Game 3 on Friday. )

[niremetal]

I don't think Teague was trying to hurt him. But frankly, the sporting thing to do in that situation (and what most players do) is hold the ball and take the 24 second violation. Teague might have been caught off-guard that Rose decided to jack up a shot then and rushed to contest a shot he didn't expect to come. It was an immature and unnecessary move by Rose to take the shot in the first place.

Edited May 6, 2011 by niremetal

[ag82]

I love teague and i do think that it may have been a little dirty. With that said, I didn't really mind it. The officiating was so bad and teague gets absolutely no calls, so he's allowed one play like that.

[Diesel]

I just watched the footage a few times.... wait.....Just watched it a few more. Now. I think Teague went for the "block" :pleasantry: because if you freeze the frame on the 7 second, there's a point where both feet are in the air. However, I think he changed his mind midair and forced himself down. Then he purposely tried to stay out of Rose's way. This is just a young player trying to figure out what to do. I was almost on board with the Teague is dirty boat until I see how he brought himself down and then rolled out of the way. Think about it. If he was dirty, he would have committed himself into slamming into Rose without stopping? What would have happened? He foul out because he's "making a play on the ball?" He definitely wouldn't have been suspended for making a play on the ball. No. JTeague tried to get down and out of the way.

[hawkshomer]

I don't really see how that was dirty. He jumped to block the shot. I'm sure he overreacted because he didn't expect Rose to take a shot with 7 secs left in the game. I've been on the bench plenty and when you get your chance, you play with 120% effort. That means playing until the buzzer.

[ag82]

actually I just rewatched it and I think he clearly didn't go for the ankles. he did bump him with the body, but if he was trying to hurt an ankle, he would have stuck a foot in there. The more I see it, the more I agree with the above poster in that he was going for the block, changed his mind, and sort of just made a bad decision. not dirty.

[uga2006]

Really?

[AHF]

"Boo-hoo our coach idiotically kept our fragile MVP on the floor after the other coach emptied his bench and after Rose hurt himself all on his own the prior game...and the opposing player breathed on him!!!! Boo-#^}}ing-hoo!!"

Edited May 6, 2011 by AHF

[hawks21]

I don't believe Teague is a dirty player, but he is an aggressive player. Why is Derrick Rose trying to take a jump shot with seconds to go anyway?

Teague came from the same college as Chris Paul. WAKE FOREST... Paul doesn't back down, and neither does Teague.

[thecampster]

"Boo-hoo our coach idiotically kept our fragile MVP on the floor after the other coach emptied his bench and after Rose hurt himself all on his own the prior game...and the opposing player breathed on him!!!! Boo-#^}}ing-hoo!!"

Like you really needed another +1 but seriously what the heck was Rose still doing in the game at that point? What the heck was Rose doing taking the shot himself (ie...why not just pass it off to a less used player with 5 left on the clock and let him stat pad)?

[Supporter]

It's because Rose want's to show off in front of his homeboys after recieving his MVP award, he wants to be the man. Rose and his cocky little behind also said, when asked about his shooting struggles, that things will change on Friday.

[MaceCase]

Like I've said elsewhere, Rose was trying to stat pad by taking a shot with 4 full seconds on the shot clock and caught Jeffrey off guard. He clearly jumps off the wrong foot, the right foot to contest with his right hand, and had a last second reactionary contest that drew him into Rose yet he still went through the trouble to try and avoid most of his body. Bulls fans are just overprotective of their golden goose because they know that they've pulled off the trifecta of having the most overrated team that is entirely dependent on the most overrated MVP since Iverson.

[macdaddy]

If that qualifies as a dirty play in the nba now then i'm going to quit watching. Did sir charles weigh in on this ridiculousness?

[coachx]

What a bunch crybabies the press has become.

That is love tap by Teague. This is the playoffs. Your not supposed to give up easy layups. Its about playing physical and making the opponent know they will get contact every time they get in the paint.

I saw the Artest foul live too. If that Dallas guard was not 5'4'' it would have nevver happened. Artest even tried to hold him up.

[hawkman]

Teague is NOT a dirty player. He seemed surprised when Rose pulled up and made a half hearted effort to defend. Why is this even an issue? I read about this on realgm and it makes the Bulls fans easy to not like hate. They're reaching here by making a big deal over a rather harmless play. They're just mad because they thought they had an easy mismatch at PG with Hinrich out. Well they don't and I hope Teague absolutely TORCHES them for the rest of this series. GO HAWKS!!!!