Meet
A Thug By Any Other Name
Posted by: Stephen Loveless on August 29th, 2010
The author's views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of the Utah Jazz.THUG : noun : a brutal ruffian or assassin : bully, gangster, goon, gorilla, hooligan, punk
The NBA is full of players that I might classify as thugs. Some fit the definition loosely and others could easily serve as the poster child. A short list that most would agree on might include Stephen Jackson, Latrel Sprewell, Allen Iverson, Gilbert Arenas, Dennis Rodman, and Ron Artest. But today I’d like to talk about one Derek Fisher. You see, I recently moved and as part of that I added NBATV to my channel list. So this past week I’ve been watching the great games of last season including several playoff games. How could I not be reminded of Derek Fisher putting Luis Scola on the floor?
Derek Fisher has been met in Utah by throngs of fans with a personal grudge after his flight to find better care for an ailing child landed him securely in a Lakers uniform. While I would have loved to see him anywhere else I hold nothing against him for this. I have kids and I need work. If that means being a Laker then I’m Laker. A man’s desire to provide for his family hardly brings the title of thug to mind. In fact, it is almost enough to make up for whatever thuggery he may otherwise be accused of. Almost.
Today I hope to present to you the evidence that will free you. No longer will you have to ’boo’ Fisher because he “betrayed us”. You’ll have actual reason. You’ll have a duty to call ”foul” when his little foot hits the floor. First I’d like to present the infamous Scola vs Fisher in Fisher’s words.
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Now, having heard that, watch two more videos. Both are of the actual hit. The first in full speed and the other in slow motion .
Now you be the judge. From where I’m sitting that hit looks anything but unintentional. Fisher watches Scola the entire way in. He lifts his elbow and shoulder as they make contact and continues to lift all the way through the hit. You can actually see Scola’s feet leave the ground. Nobody can say for certain but I find it hard to believe that Fisher didn’t see him coming or that he feels picked on by bigs taking advantage of small guards when running the high screen. Grow up. This is the NBA. If you can’t handle it I’m sure there’s a shuffleboard club down at the local retirement home. By the way, I thoroughly enjoy shuffleboard.
There are countless other examples of Fisher being a little more than aggressive. The other big event is the headbut on Steve Nash. I have watched that video from a hundred angles and I just don’t see it. That was not an intentional hit. Take a look for yourself.
How could he have known that Nash was going to whip around to his right. He could just as easily spin to his left and head down the court. I just don’t understand the big deal on that one. Yes, it was a hard hit. Sure it was a foul. But it was not a dirty play.
The last thing I want to present is a quote from Eddie Johnson, former NBA player and analyst for the Phoenix Suns. When talking about Lopez’s game he takes a slight tangent to discuss Fisher.
“I think Robin has developed tremendously well. When he first came in, couldn’t shoot free throws. Now he’s a bona fide free throw shooter and that tells me a lot. Jump shot from 15 (feet) is pretty convincing. I think he’s evolving and he has a nastiness about him, as you saw when he popped Fisher on the head which Fisher deserves. Everybody needs to pop Fisher every now and then. I love Derek Fisher, but he is one of the dirtiest players in the league, by far. By far. But I’m glad he popped him.”
The “pop” he’s referring to can be viewed below.
So that’s that. I believe that Fisher deserves every ‘boo’ he gets. I only wish that it would be for good reason and not for a petty grudge.
Replies: 9
Views: 819
9 Responses
What is this crap? Don’t boo Fisher lets save it all for LeBron. Fisher is older, and he earned his colors I don’t know about you, but I did not appreciate the hate that Reggie Miller gave us on National Television. Now before I get going about why Utah should hate LeBron the most is because Utah, and Ohio are the same when it comes to the NBA because who knows it could be us as well if Deron where to leave. He sold his home out to chase a ring, and go from being Batman to Robin. The owner of the Jazz has already pointed out how much it annoys him how bad the fans here hate on Derek, and honestly enough is enough. I have only met 3 Jazz players, and all of them are gone, and I can tell you I dislike Kosta more than Fisher. So just stop being a stupid ignorant fan, and move on!! Fisher is gone get over it!! I am tired of hearing about it. It’s more annoying than seeing the Lakers win another championship.
Yeah Fisher is such a D-bag. He is the closest there is to an NBA player that I truly hate. I don’t even really care about him lying to get out of his contract here, in fact I remember way back when my brother told me we had signed Fisher, I was pissed. I didn’t want him on the team. I was glad to see him leave. I can’t stand him based on the way he plays dirty then acts innocent (as shown in the videos above). But most of all, I have zero respect for him because he is the biggest flopper ever to disgrace the game of basketball. Just looking at his stupid face in these videos makes me wish somebody (Raja maybe?) would deck him right in the eye
I’m two faced when it comes to Derek Fisher. I in no way resent the man for asking out of his contract to go to California and do what’s best for his daughter and family. I was embarrassed and ashamed of the reaction the fans in the stadium gave him and still today continue to boo him for his trip further west. I wish it would of happened differently.
What I like about Fisher is he’s a solid team leader. He reunites the troops, hit’s big shots, comes through for a team that needs him. He’s old but he still continues to come out and play his role and do what needs to be done to win a game.
What I dislike.. everything shown above. Especially the Scola incident. At least wait till the high screen is set. Scola was just moving up the court and Fisher went away from his guy and straight toward scola with all intentions of laying him out. Then says in his press interview that he hates when high screens are set and are close and little guys can’t get around them and are bumped. Which happens… and might of happened. But the scenario he described as he was running through the screen. When no screen had been set yet. Just out right lied when the evidence was all there. So mostly his continued attitude and out right uncalled foe nastiness is my main beef with the dude. Plus he’s on the Lakers and I’d be a liar if I were to say that wasn’t a BIG reason in itself.
I don’t care what player your talking about, you could dig up dirt on any one of them. Do we not remember when Stockton was being called one of the dirtiest players in the NBA, and why? Because we was a hard nosed, meat and potatoes player. Hell, you know that Sloan LOVES players like that, and I know that he would take Fish back in an instant.
And we still boo him for choosing his daughter over us? Come on people, I think it’s time that WE grow up. Let’s move on for hell’s sake.
But I guess that’s how it works in professional sports . . . love them when they’re here even when they commit murder, yet hate them when they’re gone.
Let’s hope this years team plays well enough to help those fans, no matter how shallow they are, forget about how childish they are acting about this whole situation.
You may want to re-phrase what you are calling Fisher. Dirty player, maybe. But John and Karl had a reputation for being dirty players when they were playing too. People may not have liked them but they never attacked their character. I would not go as far as calling him a thug. If you want to see thugs just look at the entire Denver Nuggets roster. Now those are some thugs! I was a little chapped when Fisher left Utah, but I was over it in about 10 minutes. In my opinion Derek Fisher is a class act of a person. He is a God fearing family man and I would no way put him in the category of someone like J.R. Smith or Kenyon Martin. I can tell you put some thought into this post but I have to disagree with this one.
Sorry. I Love Fisher. You may say he is a thug, but you know, that is exactly what they said about one of my favorite all time players too, John Stockton. If you listen to what people said about John, he was one of the dirtiest players in the league. Why, because they played hard? Sheesh, we just picked up another thug (Bell), that you will all be cheering on and hoping that he beats up on Kobe this coming year. As long as the thug is on our team, he is great, and you say “what has he done?” But when they are not you cry, why because they play hard? What did everyone love about Matt Harpring? It was not his all star appearances, it was that he played hard and frustrated the other team… Derek Fisher is that kind of a player too. The one slide you have up top, well, you caught him man. But that is what I loved about him when he played here. Still do. Great players are great players. Is he one of the best in the league, no way. But he is awsome in my book.
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i know its random but there is nothing to do
I agree that Derek Fisher is one of the dirtiest players in the league, which is weird, because off the court he usually seems like a fairly respectable guy. As for the grudge, I realize the fact that any good father would do anything for his kids, but as fans we don’t understand the full situation. I personally believe that his child was very important, but that we have great hospital care in Utah and he’s a millionaire anyway, he can pay for any healthcare he wants! Maybe Larry Miller was just too good of a guy and didn’t want Fisher giving the media any crap if he didn’t let him leave…
Fun post, I love to hate on Fisher as much as the next guy and if you think he didn’t have other motives for leaving his contract then your kidding yourself. But in truth, it wasn’t Fisher who let Fisher out of his contract it was Larry Miller. It was simply bad business, he could have worked out a trade with a city that had proper health services (becasue Salt Lake City doesn’t?). But he didn’t, he let Fish walk and we hate Fish for it, seems a bit backwards to me. Unless Miller was a real dummy, and guessing by his empire, I don’t think he was no one got duped Larry just waived a grumpy player.The way I see it is he is just Derek Fisher, who cares if left or not? He obviously wasn’t the missing piece we needed to go all the way. He was a veteran guard who gave Deron some direction. Deron doesn’t need a mentor any more and we don’t need an old man.