(02-13-2024, 07:20 PM)CompSci87 Wrote:(02-13-2024, 05:36 PM)76lsjumb Wrote: I know that the general impression on the Board is that Murakatete committed an act that was just short of attempted murder, so maybe I'm the only one that feels differently. However, a review of the tape sure seems to confirm what I thought at the time, which was that it was likely a foul, but also that Brink got the "intentional" call with a pretty good acting job. My reason for concluding that is that, almost immediately upon Jump coming to her aid, Hannah broke out in laughter, which was promptly followed by Cam herself and then others on the bench. That reaction seemed much more consistent with having just done a very good job of getting a call to get an admittedly annoying opponent out of the game on a fifth foul than having just been subjected to a significant foul -- defined earlier in this thread as a "criminal assault". In addition -- and I readily confess that slo-mo video can be misleading -- the slo-mo replay of the incident sure looks to me like there is a delay between the contact and Cam's rather dramatic response. Finally, I'm reminded of the physics lesson in an earlier post about watching how the head moves in trying to figure out if it's a flop or not. Cam's head doesn't seem to move the way I would have expected it to had the contact been as forceful as everyone seems to assume.
I agree it was far from an assault. I think it may have legitimately been hard enough to be an intentional under the rules. Especially since the rules leave whether the contact is "excessive" to the ref's judgement.
in addition to being hard and to the breasts, the blow was not part of the flow of the game. neither player was near the ball. they were not jockeying for position. brink clearly had achieved position near the basket, and bella was fronting her; both were standing still while cam awaited an entry pass. murakatete was not trying to move cam out of position; bella whacked cam instead of trying to mover her out of position. thus the contact was clearly "excessive." perhaps similar to the famous draymond green blow to lebron's crotch. draymond was lying down. lebron stepped over him disrespectfully. draymond struck/flailed upwards with his hand (not particularly hard; bella's blow was much harder and included a wind-up) but to a vulnerable area and not in the flow of the game.
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