All NBA Elbows Aren’t Created Equal

One of the persistent stories through this NBA postseason has been the near constant flow of flagrant foul calls. Boston, in particular, has been at the center of the eternal question of what constitutes a suspension-worthy foul. Rajon Rondo’s first round assault on Brad Miller’s beautiful head earned no discipline while other starters like Dwight Howard, Rafer Alston and Derek Fisher have been handed Stu Jackson Specialties for their own offenses.
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↵Kendrick Perkins delivered what appeared to be a premeditated elbow at the throat of Orlando’s Mickael Pietrus in Game 3 Friday. It falls somewhere between Dwight’s bop and Kobe’s incidental (but slightly shady) ‘bow on the Spectrum of Dirty: less vicious than Dwight’s one-game suspension, but far more contemptible than Kobe’s thrash. See for yourself.
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↵Perkins looks at Pietrus, brings up the ‘bow and leans into Mickael’s throat. No swinging of the elbow, no Dwight-like hitting behind the back -- but it’s still an elbow. The refs called a Flagrant 1 (no suspension), and the league upheld that today, according to the Boston Globe. And it’s the right call. The zebra corps have been inconsistent on in-game punishment, for sure. But no precedent is changed by this decision. Perkins did not deserve a suspension for this. Ergo, no suspension is the right call. No matter what happened to Fisher and Howard.
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↵Perkins does, however, have remarkably bad depth perception. Or he has absolutely no awareness of his own body. Or he’s dirty. Or all of the above.↵