Originally Posted by
Lord Ash
I doubt this post will last, but my response:
As I said already; he was already leaping when the ball changed direction. It seemed to me he was trying for a horizontal swipe block, not a vertical, up and down block like centers like do. The ball was knocked back by the blond Duke player, TH's head and body were turned, his arm pulled back and down, so that rather than jumping into his side and underarm as he would have and swiping across the top of the hands, instead Henderson came up into TH's now lowered head area... then Henderson started to twist his body back as well to track the ball while now being in mid-air and trying not to come down without good footing and on top of TH, and off balance reacted by bringing his arm back towards the rapidly leaving ball, or more accurately DOWN, as he couldn't bring it BACK from the position he was in, and right into TH's now lowered nose and head... a bad result, for sure, but I really, really don't think intentional.
I think this is literally the physics of what happened, and I think it was just an unfortunate physical and literal "turn for the worse."
As for the players and all being just civil for show but seething and furious and sure it was on purpose inside... I don't buy it. When teams or players or coaches are pissed, they don't mind saying/showing it. That is how you send a message when you feel you need to send one. These guys all know each other, some better than others, all play together (fans take the rivalry much hotter than players often) and I think to them, who have played ball for YEARS and seen all sorts of bad shots, they clearly understand it wasn't intentional. Coach Williams said he knew Gerald and his family (remember, he comes from a serious basketball bloodline, with a father being an NBA player) and didn't believe he meant anything by it. Gerald said, multiple times, that he very much didn't mean to hurt TH. Lawson actually laughed a bit at the whole thing and said some ice would take care of it. Coack K certainly didn't think it was done on purpose. Wright agreed and said it was just part of the game. Come on.