For my money, the strangest moment of last night’s lopsided NBA Finals Game 1 came just after Cavaliers guard Matthew Dellavedova whacked Warriors forward Andre Iguodala in the dick and balls.
The sequence, if you missed it, came just before the end of the third quarter, and went like this: Dellavedova stumbled and committed a bad turnover at one end of the floor; then, trailing the ball in transition, he came up behind the ball-handler, Iguodala, reached around him with his right arm, swiped downward, and nailed Iguodala right in the dang junk; Iguodala turned on him angrily and the two went chest-to-chest for a few seconds before being separated by teammates.
Here’s the incident:
None of this, so far, is all that strange—least of all for these playoffs, the eventual recapping of which will include several chapters devoted to blows to various dicks and balls. The weird part came during the ensuing stoppage in play, while the referees reviewed the incident and decided how to adjudicate it, and ESPN/ABC’s broadcast team—Mike Breen, Mark Jackson, Jeff Van Gundy, and officiating consultant Steve Javie—discussed whether Dellavedova is a big bad meanie who slapped Iguodala in the dick and balls on purpose, and thus should be assessed a technical or flagrant foul, or if he’s just a reckless, uncoordinated oaf who accidentally slapped Iguodala in the dick and balls while making a play on the basketball, and thus should only receive a common personal foul.
Their consensus: Dellavedova is just a clumsy, heedless doofus who only accidentally clobbered Iguodala in the nards when he flailed at him wildly from behind while running at a near-sprint, so it’s just a regular foul. Or, as Jackson put it: “That’s just a foul. That’s all it is. That’s not intent—that’s a play on the basketball, and just accidentally gets Iguodala.”
At first glance, those sentences seem like they sorta go together, don’t they? Oh, it was only a play on the basketball, not an intentional or malicious attack on Iguodala’s testicles, therefore it’s not anything worse than a regular foul. And he may well be right about the intent part: shitty hand-eye coordination and general recklessness work perfectly well both to explain the event and as a complete list of Matthew Dellavedova’s basketball attributes.
But hang on. Why in particular should intent matter on a play like this? Take another look at the hit itself.
