I need to preface this post by saying that i’m a huge Lakers fan, and I live in L.A. But with that said, I have always liked Jose Juan (J.J.) Barea…until I saw this recent play in the Western Conference Finals. I always thought he had a good attitude, played hard, and generally seemed like a nice person. Watching his reaction to this play changed my mind entirely.
It’s easy to lose Barea in all the action, but try to focus in on the short guy in the white jersey with a buzz cut.
Durant Dunks on Brendan Haywood
We can all see what happened, but let me try to piece together what may have been said afterwards.
After Kevin Durant throws down this monstrous dunk, he lands on his wallet. Getting up, Durant yells something like “How did my **** taste?” to Dallas center Brendan Haywood, to use a Shaquille O’Neal line. Now, Haywood does not even react. He does not even look Durant in the eyes. The player who reacts to Durant is J.J. Barea.
First, it seems that Barea goes to the baseline official to suggest that Durant receive a technical foul. After that referee basically ignores him, Barea starts talking it up to the sideline official. Exactly eleven seconds in, you can see Barea talking to that referee and pointing directly at Kevin Durant. Although I’m sure Barea tried to repeat verbatim what Durant had yelled to Haywood, I find Barea’s actions deplorable.
If Barea did not make sure a big deal of this, and make his case to the refs, I doubt a technical would have been called at all. If you go back to the beginning of the clip, you can clearly see that the original call on the play was a personal foul on Haywood—nothing else.
For a player to appeal to the referees this way makes Barea look like a snitch. Like referees say, ‘winners play; only losers complain to the refs.’
Rob S. De France is a College and University instructor of English Composition living in Los Angeles. He has a B.A. in English and an M.A. in Rhetoric, Composition, and Writing. De France has played, coached, and officiated competitive high school basketball in California for many years. Recently, De France, his wife, and another colleague started an internationally read magazine at Shwibly.com.
