DubTheVanDamage wrote:RxOne wrote:98% of the post here are outright ridiculous.
Stewart put two hands on LeBrons body and pushed him off balance (hence the original foul call). Lebron took umbrage and tried to rip through the hold. The combination of the Lebrons rip through and Stewarts push changed the angular momentum of the swing and Stewart caught an accidental elbow to the eye area, followed by the back of Lebrons fist to the jaw.
Was it dirty? Probably, but guys throw elbows all the time, it's just this one produced a nasty cut. So, the level of pearl-clutching here is way overkill.
The people calling it a punch or talking about what Lebron was "aiming" for must have never been in a fight. This wasn't a fight, there were no punches thrown, there was no aiming, it was a bang-bang play involving two guys being over-aggressive. Common foul on the push, flagrant 2 / ejection for the severity of the contact, ejection for running around like a psycho. Possibly both suspended because it became a social-media spectacle. Seems cut and dry.
It's really bizarre to me why sports fans like you feel the need to defend the indefensible. Stewart should never have been bloodied and, whether intentional or not, that is 100% on LeBron.
After his elbow and before his fist, LeBron seemed to glance at Stewart -- and he likely felt his elbow impact on Stewart and he still threw his fist -- so it's not unreasonable for people to have a different opinion than you. But you flatly dismiss any other opinion and claim to be the sole purveyor of truth.
Even worse, you then attempted to denigrate anyone who questions your opinion-masquerading-as-truth as pearl-clutchers and stating that they must have never been in a fight -- to disagree with you is to be hysterical, ignorant and weak. TBH, it just makes you look insecure.
LeBron screwed up and will pay a price -- reputationally and likely from the league -- neither will be significant. But I have no idea why you feel the need to charge windmills here.
First, I'm going to need you to define "defend". If saying it could be considered dirty and I expect fines and suspensions is defending, then I'm not sure where a conversation goes if you refuse to see nuance.
Second, "after his elbow and before the fist" was literally fractions of a second. So yes, I think it is unreasonable for people to obsess over a slow-motion replay and attribute their perceived intentions to someone who experienced it in real-time.
Third, I'm not denigrating anyone's opinion, I merely disagreed, and gave reasons why. I think these people have never been in a fight because they are ascribing a level of premeditation and calculation that just doesn't exist in real-time incidents like this. When you watch something at 1/8 speed as an observer you have so much time to think about cause and effect, tit-for-tat, and a myriad of other computing variables you just don't get the luxury of in real-time.
Fourth, speaking of charging windmills, there was already a thread on this, this is the second thread. Juxtapose that to the reaction Jokic got for overtly attacking someone from behind on a dead ball with no semblance of a basketball play; that story came and went with no outrage and he was back to being good-guy Jokic the next day. So, me giving my opinion that 75+ pages of complaining about LeBron amounts to "pearl-clutching" is a reasonable response to a very real thing (a realgm thing).
Fifth, to say I claimed, "to disagree with you (me) is to be hysterical, ignorant and weak." is an outright lie. I never used those words or any words to that effect. It's a projection on your part, probably bringing more baggage into the conversation than I actually presented you with and now you don't know what to do with it, so you attack. Seems more like you are the one with an "opinion-masquerading-as-truth" problem, not me.
I'm fully aware and comfortable with the idea that your opinion may differ from mine. Are you? if you were I'd imagine you'd debate based on the things I actually said, rather than straw-manning.