Josh Hart, the Knicks’ glue guy coming off a 31-point outing against the Kings, was ejected in the first quarter Friday night for kicking Chicago’s Javonte Green in the head. That call helped shape the rest of the game, a 108-100 Bulls win at home (behind a career night from Green with 25 points and 13 boards).
Did the play deserve an ejection?
That’s clearly a foul, and given the NBA’s understandable caution around blows to the head it’s easy to see that as a flagrant one.
But a Flagrant 2 and an ejection? Here is what referee Scott Foster told a pool reporter after the game.
“By rule we considered the act unnecessary and excessive, therefore it’s a flagrant foul penalty 2…
“No, intent is not a criteria for what we do when we are ruling on a flagrant foul penalty 2 or 1. However, wind up, impact and follow through, potential for injury, whether the act was a non-basketball play, and location of the contact as well as whether we thought it was a reckless act are all the criteria that we felt were met for this decision.”
Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said postgame the referees told him they thought it was intentional.
That’s the question at the center of this — was this a non-basketball play? Was it intentional? To my eye, Hart got bumped on the drive and strip, and in trying to keep his balance while turning around, had his leg up while Green bent down to get the ball. It was a basketball play in the sense Hart was trying not to fall over, it was not “wind up, impact and follow through” like an MMA blow. If the officials had ruled it a technical (the initial call) or a flagrant 1 it would have been fair and not changed the course of the game. Their call comes off as overly harsh to me.
The Knicks’ loss has them tied with the Magic for the 4/5 seeds in the East and home court in the first round, one game back of stumbling Cleveland in third (and 1.5 up on Indiana in sixth). With the win, Chicago moves back in front of Atlanta as the No. 9 seed and the host of the two teams’ eventual 9/10 play-in showdown.
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