Rudy Fernandez Is a Real Tough Guy

I can’t remember the last time I read something this unfunny and doltish in such a short entry.

Thank you for sharing, Bart. We appreciate your invaluable input and positive feedback.

He also got an elbow to the head, but that would interfere with the intent of your post to make Rudy look like a skirt.  It looks much worse in real time.  What a ridiculous post.

First the dunk contest, now this.. Rudy I think it’s time to retire. There’s never been a successful basketball player named Rudy before anyway..

Rudy Gay was just a cruel joke, he won’t be successful either. RUDY!!!1

Premission to add DOLTISH to the official everyday English language. I want that to be as common as "the".

"It looks much worse in real time."

Correction: It looks much worse [than it actually was] in real time. This is the purpose of slow motion: To clearly show what actually happened.

That was acting job was so good Paul Pierce thought it was real.

Carted off the floor, that looks serious.
-Paul Pierce

Carted off the floor, that looks serious.
-Paul Pierce

LOL
good one inertia

And there are some people (like that fan82 guy) who are talking about conspiracy theories just because Ariza didn’t get suspended. Suspended for what btw?

Go figure.

To actually have Sporting News back a blog like this is unreal. 

Am I the only one who thinks it’s funny that a blogger is talking about courage … posting something he wouldn’t have the courage to say to someone’s face?

You’re an idiot Mottram.  It was a serious fall, and the doctors obviously felt it was necessary to immobilize him and take him to the hospital for precautionary reasons.

I’m not sure how you can deduce that somehow lessens the dude’s manhood.

That’s 15 seconds of my life that I’ll never get back by reading this blog post. Incredible…

Why don’t you do your homework before you post crap like this. If you watch the video like you said you did you would see the hit to the head first. This has to be the worst blog post of all time. I guess the ref’s and the NBA saw things a little different or maybe they did watch the video. 

I GUESS THEY WILL LET ANYBODY WRITE ON SPORTING NEWS.  WHAT A REAL CLASS ACT.  YOUR MOUTH NEEDS TO BE WIRED SHUT.   DELONTE WEST JUST BROKE HIS WRIST ON A SIMILAR PLAY.  YOU WOULD BE CRYING FOR YOUR MOMMY IF THAT EVER HAPPEND TO YOU.

Oh c’mon pepople there’s nothing wrong with this post. Basketball is not a soft sport; hence the hard wood underneath. Ariza did not go head hunting, Fernandez took a bad fall on an equally bad post on Fernandez nor did he hit his head first. Anyone who either has played this game, or currently does, knows it is bound to happen this one just made the nightly highlights cause it was good ‘talk sports news".
It’s esy for people to sit in front of the boob-tube hucking back a six-pack seeing this and rant and rave about what they "think" they see, it’s a whole other thing to actually see it for what it was: a botched defensive play with an unfortunate outcome.

Watch this video and when you get to 1:23 come back and tell me he didn’t hit his head first. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6uEx7r1zrk

Hey EvilBeaver, I got this message when I clicked the link:

The URL contained a malformed video ID.

Perhaps the link went bad in the transfer.

I watched the vast footage on YouTube. If you’re saying Ariza hit Fernandez’s head first……no I see Ariza hitting him on the forearm first then Fernandez attempting to duck out of reaction……Did Fernandez hit his head on the floor first….no.

At around 1:25 it clearly shows that Ariza didn’t even touch Rudy’s forearm.  He hit the back of his head.

It’s also obvious that Ariza was going for the ball and did not intend to injure.

Overall, this post is rather offensive. Not only is Mr. Mottran’s information inaccurate but his post is slanderous and poorly thought out.  You would expect to see a post like this on some homer’s blog that only gets read by 3 people.

I clicked on this post because I trusted that SN would provide a clear overview of what happened and was thoroughly disappointed to find someone ranting about their dislike of Italians.

This post really is a pathetic attempt at making fun of what could have been a serious injury to Rudy Fernandez. I attended this game live, and most of the fans (even Lakers fans) in the arena were quiet and nervous for at least 15 minutes after seeing Rudy fall in person.

Like the posts before me, I have to restate that anyone watching this clip without Laker goggles can see Ariza not only hit Rudy in the head, but also sent him flying horizontal to the court so his hip and elbow came crashing down with tremendous forcing. Knowing how high Rudy gets on his dunks, its hard to see how this injury wasn’t more serious.

I don’t know if its xenophobia or not, but there seems to be a lot of NBA fans/journalists that have it out for Rudy. If this had happened to Kobe, people would be crying for a suspension, not questioning his toughness.

A legitimate question for the author I’d like to see a response to:

What exactly would Rudy need to have done last night in order to prove to you that he is not in fact softer than an Italian soccer team*? It seems as if you expect anyone fouled hard on a transition layup needs react exactly the way Kurt Rambis did, which would be asking an awful lot in this case. He gets spun out on a dunk attempt, falls flat from a pretty good height, with no way of bracing himself. Do you honestly think that hard of an impact doesn’t call for at the very VERY least a breather, which you don’t seem willing to grant him?

Reading your facile comments and lame jokes, you’re essentially calling Rudy soft as an Italian soccer team (ha… ha?) because the medical staff took him out on a stretcher and held him in a hospital overnight and turns out he only had minor injuries. Medical personnel don’t take a guy off the court for the sake of theatricality or drawing a flagrant 2. They do it because it is precautionary, a point that has eluded you.

Josh, I agree, this post reminds you of a regular SN member ranting about a team or player he doesnt like.  Hell, I have even blogged about players I don’t like.  But to have a guy write like this, and who is a paid (I think) employee of SN?  That is unreal.  Mottram lacks class and his sarcasm is always out of line.  You can even tell from his two first replies to Bart and Cbass.  Maybe Mottram had a bad day and wanted to vent, lets hope so, for his sake. 

How is my sarcasm "out of line"? Cause I made a joke about a guy who wasn’t actually hurt? I think some of you take your sports just a tad too seriously.

But I do apologize for being WRONG ON THE INTERNET. Hope you were able to find some sleep last night.

I think perhaps you don’t take your job seriously enough. When people read an SN endorsed blog they want what REALLY happened. 

What the story should have included was simple.

While going for the ball, Trevor Ariza hit the back of Rudy Fernandez’s head causing him to hit the ground awkwardly and with a great deal of force.  A scrum ensued, in which Lamar Odom left the bench to participate.

After review, the NBA has decided that Ariza’s contact with Rudy’s head was unintentional and decided not to punish him further.

Odom’s leaving of the bench, however, is still under review.

On a brighter note, Fernandez is not seriously injured and will be fine.

If you think you would be able to spring up after landing like that then by all means jump off a trampoline, hit the back of your head off of something and land on your hip and chest.

Let me know how it goes.

If you want to know exactly what happened, then read the news story. This is a blog, where we interject with opinion, (failed attempts at) humor, sarcasm, etc. If you just want the straight facts, there is a headlines section on the SN.com homepage that might be more your style.

As for your interpretation of what happened, I think you’re greatly exaggerating the fall Rudy took.

Mottram is such a jerk. Rudy Fernandez made history here, as the first basketball player to ever fall out of the sky and land on his back, neck, or head. The pain he suffered has truly changed the sport forever, and that alone should have you sending him flowers. (This would all be easier to stomach if people didn’t act like Rudy was their pet kitten. I’ve seen many, many players take much worse falls, under much less questionable circumstances, and it didn’t make a blip outside the local market. Regardless of whether or not this was a flop, I find it slightly suspicious that there’s such an uproar here.) 

Yes, he isn’t the first to take a bad fall. It was an accident after all right? Do I think of Rudy as my pet kitten? No, sir I do not.

My problem is attacking someone because he is hurt from such a fall.   The guy bruised his chest and couldn’t breath for a while.  If you’ve ever had a chest bruise then you know that it takes a bit to be able to breath properly afterwards. In my opinion being hurt doesn’t make you soft or not tough, we are all humans after all.

If I understand the purpose of this blog correctly, it was a jab at not just Rudy Fernandez (and Italian soccer, which I know nothing about) but at the media who covered the "real" story to begin with.

That I can relate to. SN and other sports sites, shows etc… purposely make up the most sensational twist to EVERY story in order to get you to read it and get riled up. It happens everyday and I try to speak out against it when I can.

Whatever you call this blog you can not deny that it presents some pretty harsh and, in my opinion, undue criticisms of Fernandez. Since when does getting fouled hard and getting injured. Of those many players you have seen get fouled harder or take worse calls how many of them got slammed for not springing up and shaking it off?

My uproar has nothing to do with the play.  Like I said, Ariza went for the ball. I was just wondering when you started endorsing people who don’t know how to diplomatically get their point across.

How is this greatly exaggerating the fall? Once again another great post by Mottram. Do you still think he didn’t hit him on the head?? While going for the ball, Trevor Ariza hit the back of Rudy Fernandez’s head causing him to hit the ground awkwardly and with a great deal of force.  A scrum ensued, in which Lamar Odom left the bench to participate.

Wheels 3-10-09 Hour 3 

If you want to see what the Blazers play-by-play man Mike Wheeler had to say about this blog click on that and go to the 9:14 mark.  After the fact I actually feel bad now for giving this entry any air-time…

Wow, I’m amazed that a Blazers radio show would disagree with me on this.

do you think he asked for a stretcher? he had pain in his neck and in his chest. They were concerned about an injury to the spine. They followed standard practice and put him on a board.

again, you’ve seen worse falls than this? While you were serving as a team doctor or trainer? You’re not a medical professional? So you are talking about things you don’t understand? Well done.