Thursday, March 14th, 2013 at 9:10 am  |  80 responses

Kobe Bryant Accuses Dahntay Jones of Dirty and Dangerous Play


by Marcel Mutoni / @ marcel_mutoni

Kobe Bryant went down in a heap late in the game last night, as the Los Angeles Lakers lost 96-92 to the Atlanta Hawks. He’s now listed as being out indefinitely with a severe left ankle sprain, and Kobe is one unhappy fella.

According to Bryant, Dahntay Jones made a dirty and dangerous play as he defended him late in the fourth quarter — comparing it to Jalen Rose’s infamous and successful attempt to injure him back in the 2000 NBA Finals — and he’d like for referees to start doing a better job of protecting jump shooters.

Per the AJC:

“I think officials really need to protect shooters,” Bryant told reporters following the game.

“You can contest shots, but you can’t walk underneath players, that’s dangerous for the shooter … I’m always conscious of it. When I go to contest shots I’m always very conscious about making sure I don’t walk underneath them. It’s just a very, very dangerous play. Especially if I’m fading away, there’s no rhyme or reason why I should come down anywhere near somebody’s foot.”

Dahntay Jones defended himself on Twitter, and added that he has the utmost respect for the Lakers superstar.

Kobe Bryant’s wife, Vanessa, posted an image of the X-Ray on her husband’s swollen ankle. There’s no telling when he’ll return to game action, as the Lakers cling on to the 8th Playoff seed.

Naturally, Kobe Bryant’s thoughts turned to vengeance when discussing the injury with reporters: “I can’t get my mind past the fact that I got to wait a year to get revenge.”

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  • havoc33

    you can’t be serious. When does a player NOT kick out when doing a fadeaway? It’s obvious you never played much basketball yourself. Watch it again, and see the angle from above, baseline. Kobe is fading away from Dahntay, yet Dahntay closed up after Kobe released the shot, and now you see Kobe has nowhere to land. This is all on Dahntay at this point. Bruce Bowen had a good breakdown of it, and he would know what the heck he’s talking about.

  • Drig

    Any fadeaway involves kicking out legs. Wasn’t a mistake on Kobe’s part. Now that I’ve watched the replays again, I do think his act was intentional. And his reaction was pathetic.

    Anyways, I’m not too worried about LAL losing the 8th seed. The Jazz might end up on a 3 game losing streak the following week. Kobe’s ankle’s images kinda makes me worried that he’ll even miss his game with the Wizards……Perhaps him and Pau are gonna return together next week.

  • http://www.rich-imaging.com/ Dutch Rich

    That’s exactly what I was thinking. It’s difficult to prove whether such a play is intentional or not as he’s playing within the rules and we can’t get in his head. But what a careless play. the league should definitely examin this. It shouldn’t be allowed to cover so much ground and ending up body to body on a player coming down after a fade away shot. I can’t think of another gameplay situation where that’s even encouraged let alone legal, other than in a trap situation or something.

  • robb

    LMAO that was pretty funny dude

  • ThatManSam

    From looking at these comments, I must be the only one that raises their knee when doing a fadeaway

  • bill

    Yeah, Jones should’ve just backed off and let the best clutch shooter in the game, who is currently playing some of his best ball ever, shoot it to win the game with 2 seconds left…as if it was just an ordinary regular shot in the middle of the game. Just so the pearl clutchers won’t whine about dirty plays.

  • MasterSplinter

    Hahaha

  • MasterSplinter

    @ Dubz…. stop posting comments without doing any sort of research or having knowledge.

  • MasterSplinter

    Seriously…..try it. See how awkward it feels. If you think his kicking out on the fade away in any way contributed to the ankle injury, than your mother is a horrible example of what to consume while pregnant….Or you know nada about basketball. Which one is it?

  • MasterSplinter

    @ Anthony Dixon……..You can try to defend the stupidity in your comments all you want, but common….are you REALLY trying to tell me fade aways are to draw fouls????!……..Slap yourself.

  • MasterSplinter

    That’s as ignorant as if somebody tried to murder Obama…. People try to commit murder every day, but of course it’s going to be a story because it’s Kobe Captain Fricken Obvious. What did you hope to achieve with such an astute comment?

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=509819249 Gaurav P.

    Posted it in the other thread, but I’ll paste it here:

    Him getting that close to Kobe (he slides under the vicinity of where his legs will land) is not a natural basketball play. If that was the case, shooters would be going down left and right across the NBA. Usually, defenders jump up and move their hands closer to the shooter to block their shot/vision, while keeping their legs away from the shooter’s legs.

    There is a reason why these types of injuries are rare – most defenders avoid doing the action that Jones did after the shot. Kobe has taken how many fadeaways over 17 years? And this has happened only twice – both times when the defender has slid his feed under Kobe’s landing spot and kept it there.

    It may not have been intentional on Jones part, but it sure looks like it.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=509819249 Gaurav P.

    Well, the NBA reviewed it and determined it a foul (officially), so you were right on that.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=509819249 Gaurav P.

    This has been an issue since the days of Bruce Bowen and before. Its an unwritten rule in basketball.

  • http://www.facebook.com/doe.columbus Doe Columbus

    NBA step up and protect your superstars!!

  • Redd

    That’s instinct, he lost Kobe & tried to still defend, you’re saying after a guy pulls back & has begun to release his shot(likely releasing before u shoot) you’d calculate that & stop playing D?

    Na, and Kobe himself has adapted the Dirk jumper (openly stating) which is the kick out to force a defender to make room.

  • Dubz

    Ok I guess we can make the easy assumption that Kobe is a dirty player too then cuz he’s had plenty if dirty plays. Other than Jones’ trip against kobe what other dirty play has he been a part of?

  • Dubz

    Pushing is part of the game bud, happens all the time. Geez SMH

  • Anthony Dixon

    lol is it that serious bro? Kobe feeding you?

  • T-man

    LMAO!!! OUCH!

  • http://www.facebook.com/jab.ras.7 Jab Ras

    so much ether

  • Lloyd

    *slow clap*

  • MasterSplinter

    Kobe has to feed me so I can recognize ignorance and a lack of basketball knowledge?

  • MasterSplinter

    So your telling me you’ve never seen somebody in a pick up game, or a game that isn’t related to a playoff type atmosphere try to injure somebody?

  • shutup

    I voted down on the other thread so I’d figure I’d do it here too. See my other reply…haven’t figured out how to do that darn copy paste ish, computers hurt my head. (this comment contains sarcasm)

  • Anthony Dixon

    For you to insult someones mother , he has to be. Or u must be a groupie .Either way you must be a child.

  • buppie

    I’m surprised Kobe didn’t begin his crybaby routine by throwing Shaq under the bus like he did in Colorado.

  • http://twitter.com/apowellAdvocate Allen Powell II

    Does nobody remember when Kobe added that ridiculous arm swing to every jumpshot he took to make sure players gave him enough space on his jumper? He cold-cocked a few folks with it a few years back and got fined. I think he needs to chill with the comments about dirty play. Plus, when you watch the replay it wasn’t even obviously dirty.

  • pposse

    yeah he gave ginobli a black eye with that move, then the NBA suspended him for a game..he tried to play it off like that was a natural hand motion when you get fouled.

  • nike_head

    Two hand shoves in the back is not part of the game…..

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