NBA Enforcers

[Rudy]

Last night John Wall took exception to Heat big man Ilkauskas elbowing him in the face twice and threw a punch into Ilkauskas' ribs. Both he and Ilkauskas, along with Juwan Howard were tossed. Net gain for the Heat, but of course it was still a mismatch. I would post the youtube link but Comcast has pulled the copyright card and the clip is down.

I wonder if anyone on the Wizards said to him, next time don't try to take your own revenge leave it up to me. Are enforcers a dying breed in pro basketball?

I googled it and found several references, many of them about rough play to prevent layups. But to me an enforcer is a guy, not key to scoring, who can provide intimidation or retaliation when a leading scorer is roughed up by the opposition.

Rick Mahorn for Isiah Thomas come to mind as well as Maurice Lucas for Bill Walton.

I don't favor a return to the rough tactics of the old Pistons or Riley's Knicks but a 6'3" star shouldn't have to fight a 7 footer to protect himself. Wizards owner Leonsis probably knows this since he's owned the D.C. hockey team for awhile. There's probably a roster spot available next year on the Wizards for a tough guy.

[NovaScotian]

unfortunately, it appears that the ways of the enforcer have gone the way of the mid range jump shot in today's nba game. rip charles oakley.

[ajgoodfella7]

I've never been a fan of the "professional enforcer" in any sport, including hockey. Incidents like last night are usually isolated incidences, and nothing is more annoying to me than a guy whose sole purpose is to hurt other people. Too many times in hockey, some idiot who has about as much hockey skill as me, negatively influences games by hurting players who are actually good. I have no desire to see that happen in basketball. Basketball has always been a skill game, and anything that would diminish that, is a negative, in my opinion.

[SupaDave]

Charles Oakley is one of the best enforcers there ever was.

[MCFinARL]

I've never been a fan of the "professional enforcer" in any sport, including hockey. Incidents like last night are usually isolated incidences, and nothing is more annoying to me than a guy whose sole purpose is to hurt other people. Too many times in hockey, some idiot who has about as much hockey skill as me, negatively influences games by hurting players who are actually good. I have no desire to see that happen in basketball. Basketball has always been a skill game, and anything that would diminish that, is a negative, in my opinion.

Not only this, but the Wizards really ought to get a few more people who can actually play basketball before they start allocating roster spots to enforcers. ;)

[Newton_14]

Charles Oakley is one of the best enforcers there ever was.

Indeed. As was "The Chief" Robert Parrish. Man it was great watching those Celtic-Lakers battles back in the early 80's. Good times. Remember McHale clothes lining Rambis on a fast break? Those guys went at it. Chief also drilled Lambeer after Lambeer had fouled Bird hard in the previous playoff game. The revenge play happened in the opening possession of the very next game if I recall correctly.

Karl Malone giving Isaih a gazillion stitches as the penalty for driving the lane one too many times.. The list is long. Those teams had both skill and toughness and gave us some of the best NBA games we will ever see imo...

[lilblue]

Not sure about NBA enforcers but I remember Boozer delivering a pretty good elbow to the back of someones head after they laid a hard foul on JWill (I think) when he was trotting back down court. Anybody else remember this?

[SuperTurkey]

Not sure about NBA enforcers but I remember Boozer delivering a pretty good elbow to the back of someones head after they laid a hard foul on JWill (I think) when he was trotting back down court. Anybody else remember this?

Yes, Isenhour of GT. He died in 2002 of leukemia (http://ramblinwreck.cstv.com/sports/m-baskbl/mtt/isenhour_michael00.html).

[lilblue]

Yes, Isenhour of GT. He died in 2002 of leukemia (http://ramblinwreck.cstv.com/sports/m-baskbl/mtt/isenhour_michael00.html).

Oh crap, I feel horrible now! Although, at the time I was so happy that Boozer "defended" his team mate.

[sagegrouse]

Not sure about NBA enforcers but I remember Boozer delivering a pretty good elbow to the back of someones head after they laid a hard foul on JWill (I think) when he was trotting back down court. Anybody else remember this?

There was TV coverage of Boozer, while running into the front court, giving a strong elbow to the chest and neck area of Michael Isenhour, a Georgia Tech forward. The alert broadcasting team rolled the game play backwards and found where Isenhour had elbowed Boozer on the previous play. No fouls were called.

What is memorable about this is that Isenhour died of leukemia while still a Tech undergraduate. He was diagnosed just before his senior season in October 2001 and passed away the following June. He had started college at the AF Academy in 1997.

sagegrouse

[SuperTurkey]

What is memorable about this is that Isenhour died of leukemia while still a Tech undergraduate. He was diagnosed just before his senior season in October 2001 and passed away the following June.

According to my link above, he graduated with his class the December before he passed away.

[throatybeard]

Speaking of ridiculous cancer deaths, there was, you know how SI has the one long feature article in the back, in the vain hope that Americans still have attention spans? They had a feature a few months ago. I wish I had the print magazine in front of me.

This girl at Cal, or Stanford, I think Cal, never-smoker, gets this balls-out aggressive lung cancer. Mets like crazy. Like 20 or 21 years old. She's a coxswain on the crew team. She almost dies during treatment, but manages to make it back for the Pac10 finals in May. May 2010, I'm guessing. I think they finished second, even though they wrote the article to make you think they're gonna win.

Dies five, six weeks later in June. Messed. Up.

If anyone else remembers the details better than I do, bring them.

[Rudy]

Speaking of ridiculous cancer deaths, there was, you know how SI has the one long feature article in the back, in the vain hope that Americans still have attention spans? They had a feature a few months ago. I wish I had the print magazine in front of me.

This girl at Cal, or Stanford, I think Cal, never-smoker, gets this balls-out aggressive lung cancer. Mets like crazy. Like 20 or 21 years old. She's a coxswain on the crew team. She almost dies during treatment, but manages to make it back for the Pac10 finals in May. May 2010, I'm guessing. I think they finished second, even though they wrote the article to make you think they're gonna win.

Dies five, six weeks later in June. Messed. Up.

If anyone else remembers the details better than I do, bring them.

It was Jill Costello at Cal Berkeley and they finished second at the Nationals. Here's the link to the SI article, one of the most moving and sad sports stories I've ever read.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1178822/1/index.htm

An excerpt:

Just by making it this far, she'd defied the odds. Of all others given a diagnosis of lung cancer in June 2009, more than half had died by January. And here Jill was, six months later, about to race at nationals.

There was so much wrapped up in this final race. Lying in bed that week, O'Neill had confided to his wife, Nicole, that while the rowers never talked about it, they felt that if they could win the NCAAs, then Jill could beat cancer. "It would be like Lance Armstrong all over again," he said. Saturday night, on the eve of the final race, O'Neill got up at the team dinner and said he thought it wasn't fair that everyone got to race as Team Jill except Jill herself. Then he'd pulled out a turquoise uniform for Jill.

The next morning, rowers were on hand from schools across the country—Princeton, Virginia, Yale—and many of them knew nothing about Jill. The trainer for Washington State, Barb Russell, knew only because she was friends with Smitty. So when the Cougars were knocked out in the semis, Russell couldn't contain herself any longer. She gathered the team around her. "Do you know why Cal is wearing those colors?" she asked. "O.K., let me tell you a story." Five minutes later all the Washington State rowers were clustered at the shoreline, cheering for Cal. They didn't stop until well after the boat had crossed the finish line.

[Rudy]

Here's a picture of Costello with her teammates at the trophy presentation. She's the one in the center holding the dog. She and her teammates knew she was dying and she did less than a month after this photo was taken.
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.lungcancerfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Jack-JIll-SportsIllustrated420x380BIGTIME-withborder.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.lungcancerfoundation.org/in-the-news/college-students-mobilize-for-jill/&usg=__E2LbvbxEU7WEo0-Tw6CmlnjHMz0=&h=393&w=432&sz=191&hl=en&start=55&zoom=1&tbnid=z5u1Kjmdzj2MEM:&tbnh=155&tbnw=170&ei=QsyVTc7EEoPHgAe097WuCA&prev=/images%3Fq%3DJill%2Bcostello%26hl%3Den%26client%3D firefox-a%26hs%3D47J%26sa%3DX%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26biw%3D1250%26bih%3D847%26tbs%3Disch: 10%2C1436&itbs=1&iact=rc&dur=621&oei=FcyVTaWBMIq4tweK59WRDA&page=3&ndsp=26&ved=1t:429,r:7,s:55&tx=90&ty=45&biw=1454&bih=847

[throatybeard]

Man, that still just busts me up. That woman.

[UrinalCake]

It's pretty much impossible to be an enforcer in today's game considering you can get T'd up for staring at your opponent the wrong way, and even taking a step off the bench to prepare to defend a teammate warrants an automatic suspension. Playing the role of enforcer in a playoff series would basically be a one-shot deal because you'd be suspended for the rest of the series.