Sometimes it's just too easy to present the best of the worst of professional basketball. In this instance, Caron Butler and Dereck Richardson's face did all the work for me. As gags go, you don't get much purer then a guy getting hit in the face with something.

Although, I suppose the ball could've transformed into a pie midair, but that would've just confused people and gotten scientists involved. There are some camps who may have preferred a basketball to the balls. Before weighing in on this debate, I would like to see two similar videos side by side, in which two identical basketball referees get hit with a basketball from identical camera angles—one to the face, the other to the groin.

Unfortunately, I can't provide that. As far as I know, Dereck Richardson has never had a basketball spiked into his sack. In fact, my nearly 4 minutes long, painstakingly thorough search through the internet didn't turn up a single basketball ref taking a similar shot to the family jewels.

So instead, we turn back the clock to October of 2012, and turn our attention overseas to a soccer match between Slovakia and Holland.



That's evidently not the right video. We seem to be experiencing some technical difficulties. The point is, a soccer ref got kicked in the nuts. Not directly—one of the soccer players kicked the ball, & then the ball hit him in the nuts.

His knees buckled a bit, but he didn't go down. It wasn't that good of a video. The camera angle only caught it from behind, which is not the best way to appreciate somebody getting struck in the love spuds.

I can't tell you how funny it would've been if the ball had gravitated towards Richardson's gonads. What I can say, is that the ball hit him in the face, that he collapsed in a heap, and that it was funny. I also know that Greg Anthony accused him of having a glass jaw.
7 Comments:
Blogger Wormboy said...
I know what Bill Russell would say. "You couldn't have swatted that ball to a teammate?"

Truth.

Blogger Glenn said...
Normally I would agree, that is a superior technique. But in this case, I'm willing to make an exception. This could be a valuable tool for players after blown calls. I can't believe Sheed hasn't done this yet.

Blogger Wormboy said...
Just looking at Bron's stats. Shooting 55% from the field and 39% from 3 pt range this year. Holy Roman Empire!

But why is Bosh an All Star? His efficiency has improved as well, with a 54% FG%. He's gone from 7.0 to 7.1 shots made per game with 1.4 fewer attempts. That's nice. I'm an efficiency fan. My only complaint about Bosh is that he should really be getting 9 boards per game rather than 7.8.

Wade is doing OK as well, though a decrease in Win Shares. Why aren't the Heat near the top in win%?

Blogger Wormboy said...
Oh, and just looking at Dwight Howard's numbers. Definitely down. But think on this: in the 2011 playoffs, he averaged 27 pts and 15.5 rebounds per game. Against Atlanta in a first round loss (6 games), but still. Imagine if the dude actually gets his mojo back by the playoffs, that is, if they make the playoffs. I can't write off the Lakers yet. If they can gel and squeak into the playoffs, they could well beat OKC or SAS in the first round. I loathe the Lakers and double loath Kobe, but I can't rule it out.

Blogger Glenn said...
As long as Kobe keeps on attempting only 10 shots and dishing out 14 assists, anything is possible.

Anonymous Half-Man Half-Dead yet said...
Hey Glenn!

Completely unrelated but Ersan Il(l)yasova has 102 Pts; 49 Reb; 11 Ast, 6 Stl over his last 4 games shooting 55% from the field; 87,5 FT% and hitting 12 of 19 threes.
Not that anyone would care at this point, but still...

Blogger Glenn said...
Thanks, Half-Man Half-Dead. I care.