Late in the third quarter of the Spurs’ win over the Suns on Saturday, Shannon Brown was called for a flagrant-two foul when he caught no ball and all Manu Ginobili on an attempt to block his opponent’s shot from behind.
The play looked (and sounded) worse than it actually was, but considering the loud smack that the contact made, along with the violent swat and the way Ginobili awkwardly fell, the call by the officials was understandable.
Ginobili’s teammate, Stephen Jackson, agreed that there was no ill intent by Brown on the play. But he had strong words for anyone else that might be thinking about getting overly physical with the Spurs.
From Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic:Brown was not available for comment after the game. Ginobili said he felt “a big hit” but did not want to judge Brown’s intent.
“I know Shannon Brown,” Spurs forward Stephen Jackson said. “He doesn’t play like that. Obviously, if it was anybody else, I probably would have knocked him out.”
Obviously.
You’d like to think Jackson was joking here, but it’ll be interesting to see if the league ends up seeing it that way. Jackson took his tough guy act to Twitter earlier this season, when he threatened the Thunder’s Serge Ibaka and was slapped with a $25,000 fine for doing so.