Boozer Accidentally Punches Ref

[grunewar]

Carlos Boozer punches a referee below the belt (GIF)

You write the caption here.......Mark?

Talk about right place, wrong time......

[Terrapins Fan]

"That's all you got?"

" My sister punches harder than that"

[JetMetFan]

[KMBReferee]

I'm glad Crawford wasn't hurt, but at the same time, I kind of have a problem with nothing being called.

We've seen incidents where players get blindsided by elbows (Ron Artest giving James Harden from last year is a classic example; I thought he should have gotten suspended more games than he did) and there was an "inadvertent" ball shot earlier this year on Blake Griffin by Serge Ibaka. I believe if someone gets hit or injured by your "carelessness" then you should be penalized for it. I'm sure Boozer legitimately didn't mean to, but I don't think they should move on without it being penalized, and send a message to everyone else to keep their hands to themselves.

[mj]

Originally Posted by KMBReferee

I'm glad Crawford wasn't hurt, but at the same time, I kind of have a problem with nothing being called.

We've seen incidents where players get blindsided by elbows (Ron Artest giving James Harden from last year is a classic example; I thought he should have gotten suspended more games than he did) and there was an "inadvertent" ball shot earlier this year on Blake Griffin by Serge Ibaka. I believe if someone gets hit or injured by your "carelessness" then you should be penalized for it. I'm sure Boozer legitimately didn't mean to, but I don't think they should move on without it being penalized, and send a message to everyone else to keep their hands to themselves.

Really? It can be an emotional game sometimes and he was celebrating.

[Adam]

Originally Posted by mj

Really? It can be an emotional game sometimes and he was celebrating.

First, I couldn't care less about the emotional game aspect. Players at this level are adults and should conduct themselves accordingly. But that's more of a response to those who say we should let players and coaches vent because it's an emotional game. This play doesn't fit that mold.

He was celebrating, and the ref walked into his swinging arm. There's no need to penalize a player for this. If you're not paying attention and walk into a player like this, you don't penalize the player.

[zebraman]

That's funny. As my 10-year old son would say, "that was almost a pickle shot!" Crawford handled it perfectly. It was totally accidental and Boozer was just excited, not taunting or anything like that.

[BillyMac]

I've punched a player. I sounded my whistle, called a held ball, signaled with my thumbs up, felt for the whistle in my pocket (that's the way we do things here in the Land of Steady Habits), turned to the arrow at the table to confirm my call, stuck out my arm to indicate the direction, and smacked a player right in the side of the face. It's a good thing that I didn't poke him in the eye.

[blindzebra]

I guess it is time to add a cup to my game bag.

[JRutledge]

Very inadvertent, very much unintentional and he was not even complaining about anything. And everyone is laughing. I cannot even consider doing anything to Boozer or any player in this specific situation.

Peace