The incident with Manu Ginobili caused quite a stir, especially since the San Antonio Spurs reporters utilized their journalism skills to extract the quote, "I deliberately bumped into Popovich, and I did it on purpose to take out Ginobili, yes, just like that," which led to an uproar.
The League, under pressure, stated they would initiate an investigation.
However, this action t with strong protest from the Grizzlies.
Because, League, you can’t be hypocritical, if you’re going to investigate, then look into Anderson bumping into Guy, and Ginobili’s attempt to hurt Randolph as well.
No, you should investigate how Bowen slipped a foot under Carter and Hory ramd into Nash.
One thing leads to another, and the League’s investigation ended without any real consequence. In the end, they issued Hansen a re slap-on-the-wrist fine of 20,000 US dollars based on his comnts.
Afterwards, the Grizzlies continued to submit protest appeals to the League, not feeling there was anything wrong with what Hansen had said.
The League chose to ignore them.
Then on the next day, the League announced the punishnt for Randolph, suspending him for one ga due to his takedown of Ginobili.
Back in the ’70s and ’80s, that kind of takedown was nothing to the League, not fighting was almost an embarrassnt to claim you played in the NBA.
But that also gave the NBA a bad image, after all, people would rather watch boxing than see actual fights during a basketball ga.
Thus, after Stern took office, he was dedicated to changing this image.
The "Auburn Palace Brawl" gave him a perfect entry point, and afterwards, malicious incidents were dealt with more severely.
The most representative was the 2006 Madison Square brawl, where Anthony rely hit the New York Knicks’ Matty Collins once, and the League suspended him for a whopping 15 gas.
Randolph was only suspended for one ga, already taking into account that it was the playoffs.
"Han, next ti there’s an incident like this, I’ll handle it," Jas Johnson proactively approached Hansen after the League’s sanctions were published.
After all, Hansen isn’t Bowen; even Bowen couldn’t always be so lucky to be considered accidental, and once it was discovered to be intentional, suspension would be inevitable.
And if Hansen got suspended for this, it would be the straw that broke the cal’s back for the Grizzlies.
Hansen had no reason to reject Johnson’s initiative.
It made him think of East University before he traveled through ti, pledging not to first use nuclear weapons, a direct deterrent.
Isn’t Johnson exactly the NBA’s nuclear weapon?
A day later, the G5 between Grizzlies and Spurs comnced in San Antonio.
This ti, Hansen didn’t have his hot shooting touch, an occurrence with inherently low probability.
Although the Spurs were missing Ginobili, they put up a desperate fight back ho and won 93 to 87.
But honestly, everyone knew it was just their last struggle.
When the series returned to mphis for G6, Randolph ca back fully revved, bursting with pent-up anger, he detonated the Spurs’ inside line.
points and 14 rebounds, achieving a new career high in playoff scoring.
Duncan, who had reached his limits, simply couldn’t stop Randolph, contributing only 6 points and 7 boards to what turned out to be the worst playoff performance of his career.
"TD might want to consider retirent," Barkley lanted from the comntators’ booth.
to 2, the Grizzlies ultimately ousted the Spurs, powerfully advancing to the Western Conference Finals.
They would face their final opponent in the conference finals, the Dallas Mavericks who shockingly swept the Lakers.
By this ti, the semi-finals in The East had also concluded.
The Hawks ultimately couldn’t continue their Cinderella run like the Grizzlies, winning early but losing later, 2 to 4, they were knocked out by the Bulls.
Ross exploded for a new playoff career-high 44 points in G3, but what’s more important is the Bulls’ defense, holding the Hawks under 90 points in 4 out of the 6 gas.
Similarly, the Heat advanced 4 to 1 over the Celtics with their outstanding defense to et the Bulls in the Eastern Conference Finals.
Jas and Wade each managed to score 25 points in the past two rounds of gas, both playing exceptionally well.
It was then that the League announced the last award of the season, the All-NBA Teams.
The Grizzlies reaped a harvest at this ti, Hansen not only continued to be nad to the All-Defensive Second Team but also made the All-NBA Third Team.
Randolph also earned the first All-NBA Third Team selection of his career.
As for dia awards, it’s still about the hype, fa is all about who you can hype up.
Of course, the most talked-about aspect of the selection was Anthony being left out of the Third Team and Jas continuing to be nad to both First Teams.
Anthony had perford well both with the Nuggets and the New York Knicks, especially hitting a career-high 42.4% from three-point range with the Knicks.
As for Jas, his performance on both ends of the court had obviously slipped this season. That spot should have gone to Wade.
But then again, who controls dia voting?
LeBron fans also have their own theories, after all, Wade has to compete with Kobe for the position.
What’s this about All-NBA Teams not by position? Then I’ll surround you with Jas’ scoring, rebounding, and assists.
What, Wade’s making sacrifices? Are you saying Jas isn’t making sacrifices too? My shot attempts are at a career low!
And Bosh not being selected?
Who cares.
The Western Conference Finals between the Grizzlies and the Mavericks were about to begin, and Hansen arrived in Dallas with the team the day before the ga.
Upon arriving in Dallas, Hansen was invited to O’Neal’s ho.
"You’re not trying to get drunk, are you?" Hansen joked when he saw O’Neal bringing out the alcohol.
O’Neal laughed and switched to a beverage instead.
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