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Sam Cassell doesn’t like seeing guys fined for the Sam Cassell dance

Sam cassell

It’s been called the big balls dance among other things, but we associate it with Sam Cassell — you hit a big shot, a dagger, and as you come back up the court you drop your hands down like you are cupping some extra large… um… cajones.

It’s a popular move, something that makes Cassell smile, he told Marc Stein at ESPN.

“When I saw Kobe [Bryant] do it [in the 2009 playoffs], I knew it was big-time,” Cassell said.

The suits in the league office hate the dance.

Do it and you get fined — Andray Blatche and Caron Butler each have been hit for $15,000 fines for the dance already this season.

You can guess how Cassell feels about that.

“Obscene gesture?” Cassell bellowed, shaking his head disapprovingly.

That dance doesn’t bother me, but remember part of the NBA’s core market is they old rich guys who can write big checks for luxury boxes across the nation, the guys who okay the corporate suite. The league doesn’t want to offend those guys (we see the same thing in the NFL).

To me, emotion is part of the game — I want to see it, I want to feel it. This is part of that. I fear the league is going to make the game to sterile in pursuit of the almighty dollar.