Andrew Bogut on LeBron James: ‘I think he jumped into the cameraman’
In a postseason filled with scary moments, this one seemed to carry on the unfortunate tradition.
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LeBron James, already dragging his tired team up and down the court against a rejuvenated Golden State Warriors squad during the second quarter of Game 4 of the NBA Finals, fell into a cameraman after taking in a hard-yet-appropriate foul from Warriors center Andrew Bogut. James’ resulting collision left him with a gash on his head that needed stitches following the game, though luckily he did not suffer a concussion.
Most observers seemed to agree that Bogut’s foul didn’t mean to send James toward the camera lens, as it was only placed as to prevent one of the greatest finishers in NBA history from tossing up a reverse layup at the rim. Everyone seemed to just about move on, as soon as it was discovered that James would be able to play.
Not Bogut, apparently. From USA Today’s Sam Amick:
“I think he jumped into the cameraman,” Bogut said when asked to give his perspective on the play. “Yeah, I think he came down and took two steps and then fell into the cameraman. I definitely, definitely didn’t hit him that hard.”
When the reporter replied by saying, “That’s how you saw it?” Bogut said, “No, that’s how it was. If you look at the replay, you can see the two steps being taken and then him falling into the camera. That’s what we saw on the replay, and that’s what my teammates saw.”
Now, it’s possible that Andrew Bogut may have been employing some of that famously dry, Australian wit.
LeBron James is a competitor. He will do whatever it takes to win. He played 46 out of 48 minutes in Game 3, and would have attempted the same in Game 4 had he and his less-talented team not been thoroughly outclassed by a rampaging Warriors squad. Short of leaving games with leg cramps – you know, that thing that makes you unable to walk – James is going to do everything he can to give his Cavaliers every edge.
He didn’t, presuming Bogut is being serious, make a split-second decision to launch himself into a cameraman in order to pick up a flagrant foul call. All that, at worst for the Warriors, would have merely resulted in two more free throws on top of the two LeBron was about to shoot, in a 12-point game. People don’t do that. Great players don’t do that. Psychopaths, and there have been many working within the NBA ranks over its decades, don’t even do that.
LeBron James did not jump into a cameraman in order to earn one or possibly two extra free throws, and the chance to foul Andrew Bogut (who has stunk this entire series, and played just three mostly-terrible minutes in Game 4) out of the game via the NBA’s flagrant foul policies.
Now, if Bogut is attempting some sort of ham-fisted way of defending his foul, then this is somewhat understandable. The center’s foul did not cause James to fall to the floor. LeBron, understandably as he attempts to tip-toe through the small space between the court and the assembled media, fans, and security (while working at 6-9 and lord knows how many pounds, after being grappled by the league’s best defensive 7-footer), lost his balance and fell. It happens.
If Andrew Bogut wants to tell the media and by extension the sport-watching world that he didn’t mean to cause a scary fall and gash on LeBron James’ head, there are better ways of doing it. If Andrew Bogut wants to tell the same amount of listeners and readers that his foul didn’t directly lead to James’ gash, he’d be right in doing so – and there are also better ways of saying as much while still keeping a competitive, on-record edge as you head into a best-of three series with the title on the line.
It’s hard to tell sometimes, with Bogut, if he’s just being a smartass, or an [COMMENT REDACTED].
It can’t be easy to move from your team’s defensive linchpin and most underrated offensive contributor (even in the games where he hits just two field goals) to acting as an afterthought on national TV, but that’s where Bogut is right now. W’s coach Steve Kerr made the gutsy decision to lift a healthy Bogut – a brilliant defender, passer, and screener and one of the game’s more underrated talents – from the starting lineup for the first time all season. Bogut came off the bench in two regular season games, but those contests came after the center was recovering from injury.
To be so swiftly and publicly told that you are the problem, after over seven months of being part of the solution, has to be galling. Andrew Bogut didn’t seem to be expressing any anger or frustration in his (again, needed and appropriate) foul on James, but couldn’t you understand the guy if he did? Warriors coach Steve Kerr was right to remove Bogut, the matchups just aren’t in Andrew’s favor this time around, but even in spite of the blowout win this is a tough professional situation for all involved.
Speaking of tough professional situations …
Someday an NBA player is going to suffer a career-altering head or knee injury because of the cameramen and women on the sideline. Someday a cameraman or woman is going to be hurt just as badly. As the game evolves into this maddening, ultra-quick dance that has helped create the NBA’s best Finals ratings in over a decade, those that are just as adept at keeping up with this action with a massive, high-definition camera on their shoulder just might have to move.
It’s not the fault of those who are sitting on the baseline. These are good people that are asked to sit in a precarious (and rather uncomfortable) position for hours at a time to bring you the sort of shots that, unknowingly, you’ve asked for. Furthermore, it isn’t as if removing this realm of media from the baseline from that area will save your favorite players’ knee or head – momentum is momentum, trips are trips, and someone like LeBron James could just as well hurt himself on the bare hardwood or the lap of that leathery guy that sits on the other side of the basket that James fell down by in Game 4.
Scores of NBA players hopped on Twitter following James’ cut to wonder if this wouldn’t be the final straw, and the impetus behind the league’s move to run camera operators elsewhere. Those of us with one-trillionth the talent, speed and momentum of NBA players have all had our frightening near run-ins with whatever area that lies behind the goal – whether it’s a batch of padded foam, a chain link fence, or a group of people. The game is getting faster, and it might be time to adapt.
Understand that the majority of the photos you see on this or other websites are taken by people working from that position, and that the video angles we crave (whether they’re going up on the scoreboard or the American Broadcasting Corporation) are given to us by the talented people that sit at those spots.
Something’s gotta give, though.
As for Andrew Bogut? He seems to be projecting, here. If anyone is going to jump into a camera in order to force the referees into ejecting a guy, it would probably be Andrew Bogut.
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Kelly Dwyer is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KDonhoops
