The Atlanta Hawks visit Toronto tomorrow to play the Raptors for the first time since Al Horford injured T.J. Ford six weeks ago. Here's the post that appeared after that Dec. 10 game.
The only infuriating part about Al Horford's foul that put T.J. Ford in the hospital is that it was a damn rookie mistake.
It was a freak thing. Horford's hand caught Ford full on the head as he tried to defend a breakaway layup, causing his head to strike the floor, instantly summoning the backstory with T.J., his history of neck problems. However, it just seems to miss the point to hate on Horford. Booing him every time he touches the ball when Atlanta returns to Toronto on Jan. 18 just seems pointless, especially with a rookie. Fat chance disabusing Toronto fans of that notion, though.
The 21-year-old Horford just didn't have the hoops know-how that would inform him of how to defend against Ford's layup. There was no malice in his heart. If there is any malice, it's in an American basketball system which points players toward the "next level" from the time they're nine years old without cultivating much court sense.
Typically, in a late-game situation where a team can't afford to concede a layup and both players are running at full tilt, the protocol is to try to put the offensive player in a bearhug and slow him down. If you can't do that, you let him score and everyone lives to fight another day.
So you have inexperience coupled with Horford being a big who doesn't defend vs. many fast breaks, let alone against a player with T.J.'s quickness. Ford, perhaps knowing that Horford prides himself on being a shot-blocker, also decided to attempt a reverse layup to try and draw a foul for a chance at a 3-point play. The potential for an injury was high.
One irony is that maybe Ford just takes a straightforward layup if it wasn't someone who he felt he could draw a foul on. (Please don't take this as blame-the-victim.) Another irony: Steve Francis' takedown of Carlos Delfino on a breakaway layup in the Raptors' win over Houston on Sunday was a bona fide cheapshot, but no one made a big deal out of it, since Delfino wasn't hurt.
That's not so say it was wrong if your gut instinct was to wonder why none of the Raptors tried to avenge their fallen teammate. (Sam Mitchell's anger said it all.) Can't trust the gut on this one. The gut is often lined with very base impulses, including the tendency to take an us-vs.-them mentality in everything.
That's not the usually-gray truth, though. The closest we got to that last night was about a second after Ford's head struck the floor. Horford's hands kind of flew up, in a kind of what-have-I-done twitch. At that moment, he looked every bit like a 21-year-old kid. This isn't one of the mid-'90s New York Knicks or a veteran cheapshot artist such as Bruce Bowen of the San Antonio Spurs. It's not the hoops equivalent of Steve Downie pulling dick moves since peewee. As for booing him when the Hawks come to T-Dot, it doesn't pass the sniff test since he's not a veteran player who's had time to learn his options in that situation.
This isn't the Senators' Daniel Alfredsson cheap-shotting the Leafs' Darcy Tucker in the 2002 playoffs (and by the way, Toronto fans need to let that go).
Having seen that, and having heard The Fan 590's Eric Smith report that Horford went to the hospital to see T.J., sympathy is a stronger emotion than vengeance. It looks like it might be touch-and-go with T.J. Ford playing basketball in the next little while, but remember that touch of gray if the ACC boobirds are letting Horford have it next month.
Related:
Ford injured in Raptors win (Larry Millson, globesports.com)
Ugly end to big win for Raptors (Doug Smith, Toronto Star)
That's all for now. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca
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5 comments:
Yeah, agreed: from what I saw of the incident, it looked more like pure accident than an intentional play. Good to hear that Horford went to the hospital to see Ford as well: definitely a classy move. Hopefully Ford will be okay, but as Doug Smith pointed out, his history of past injuries makes this even scarier. The Ford injury, and to a lesser extent the knocks to Kapono and Calderon, come at a terrible time for the Raptors though, as they were just starting to get everyone healthy again...
I concur, Andrew. From what I saw on TSN today, it was an honest mistake on Horford's part. The fact he went to the hospital to see Ford and the Hawks staff came out to treat Ford so quickly is a testament to that organization having the right priorities in mind.
I doubt people are going to boo Horford en masse when the Hawks come into town on the 18th. I think most people could see it was not a deliberate effort to injure Ford. It was just a bad mistake by a young guy whom obviously was horrified by what happened.
Absolutely ... You could see from Horford's facial expressions immediately after the foul that he was remorseful and was hoping TJ wasn't hurt badly.
Neate, I agree with your statement about 'gut feelings' tending to create an 'us vs. them mentality', which is quite disturbing, really. At the end of the day, it's just a game. And I think Horford's visit of TJ makes this story a positive one, however strange that may sound with Ford being hurt.
Toronto fans still boo Alfredsson five years after the fact, still boo Tracy McGrady (who needed to go somewhere where he could get out of Vince's shadow) and they booed Roberto Alomar in the late '90s after he left.... so they're not always discriminating.
Hopefully they won't, and it helps that Horford doesn't play for a divisional rival or a high-profile team.
By the way, it's easy to magnaminous on this end... my fantasy opponent this week has T.J.; then again, I have Jason Kapono, so shame on me.
horford got suspended. which is kind of bs. but to be expected in the family friendly league stern is trying to acheive. what's funny about that clip is rick mahorn saying he was never involved in any rough stuff on breakaways. what a joke.
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