Jazz forward Andrei Kirilenko sat out another game, Saturday night against Denver, but as it turned out he wasn't missed.
Not a bit. What was expected to be a close contest between Northwest Division contenders turned into an unmitigated rout.
Still, Kirilenko would have enjoyed taking part. It wasn't poor play that sidelined the agreeable Russian. Rather, it was a sprained hip, compliments of a flagrant 2 foul by Dallas forward Dirk Nowitzki nearly a week ago. A.K. faked Nowitzki in the air and was going up for a shot when Nowitzki draped an arm around Kirilenko's neck and slammed him to the court.
Next thing you know, Kirilenko was leaving the building in a wheelchair and the crowd was booing the NBA's reigning MVP like he'd stolen their parking privileges.
Nowitzki reacted as though slamming people without a mat is an everyday event. Maybe it is. He was suspended and fined by the league, missing this week's game against Houston. Meanwhile, Kirilenko's no-show streak stands at three — four counting the remainder of the Dallas game. It's questionable he'll even be ready to go Tuesday against Chicago.
Is this fair?
Rather than suspending Nowitzki for the next game, which happened to be against Houston, why not suspend him for the next game against the Jazz? After all, it could have been lowly Miami or Minnesota that the Mavericks played next. But if the Jazz didn't play Dallas again this year — they do on April 10 — that idea wouldn't work.
Better yet, why not just suspend him for as many games as Kirilenko misses?
An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hip for a hip.
Somehow the rules were simpler in 1200 B.C.
Dirty play vs. physical play is a highly subjective thing. A flagrant 1 technical on Denver's Anthony Carter on Saturday seemed hardly worth the trouble. Jazz coach Jerry Sloan didn't even make much of Nowitzki's foul. That could be because it wasn't far from the sort of foul Sloan used to administer. If a guy gets you in the air, you want to make sure he doesn't score.
At the same time, Nowitzki made no pretense of blocking the shot. He was going to take down Kirilenko, pure and simple. Prevent the bucket with a hard foul.
Still, there's something wrong about taking a player out for 3-plus games or more and missing just one yourself. That's why hard fouls seem so appealing to the giver — they send a message and they don't usually cost much.
Suspending the offender for as many games as the injured player does present some problems. What if the foul ends someone's career? Does the offender get banned for life? Maybe. Anyone who has seen the replay of Kermit Washington's 1977 attack on Rudy Tomjanovich has to believe it should have at least ended Washington's season. He got a $10,000 fine and a 60-day suspension; Tomjanovich missed the rest of the year (four months) after having his skull, jaw and other facial bones fractured.
(Incidentally, Karl Malone's infamous 1991 foul on Isiah Thomas required stitches, but Thomas returned to the game.)
It's a weird dilemma. Pete Rose gets a lifetime ban for betting on baseball, but you can cave in another man's face with a punch and miss 60 days in basketball. Washington played five more years in the NBA.
Then there's the matter of intent. Does one player plan to hurt another just enough but not too much?
Nowitzki wasn't exactly contrite about the foul on Kirilenko, insisting afterward that he got caught in the air and lost his balance. He complained that league officials "don't know what it feels like to be out there and get caught in the air."
Maybe, but they probably do know what it feels like to miss work on someone else's account.
The game got sidetracked when it started allowing players to commit "hard fouls" as part of the strategy. Now there is a wide variety of interpretations as to what is a foul and what isn't. That's probably because the players are so big and fast today that some physical play has to be allowed. But when it gets physical enough to cause a player to miss a week of action, the league should get physical, too. It should tell the offending player he can take some time off, until the injured player is back and everyone has a fighting chance.
E-mail: rock@desnews.com