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HOW THE STACKHOUSE-SNYDER FIGHT BEGAN: In the wake of Saturday's after-game
parking garage altercation between Jerry Stackhouse and Kirk Snyder, we
reviewed the Dallas-Utah game tape to try to ascertain what might have
happened on the court to cause a fight afterwards between the two.
Our disclaimer is this: we only had the video of the game itself.
Thus, if any existed, it is impossible to pick up any running verbal
confrontations between the two. Also, we only saw what the camera chose to
show us. Nevertheless, here is what we have to offer.
Stackhouse and Snyder were matched up on each other from the time
Snyder entered the game near the end of the first quarter. The only possible
in-game incident we could find between the two occurred early in the second
period.
Stackhouse was doing a particularly effective job of staying right on
top of Snyder. With almost exactly 10:00 left in the second, as Snyder was
unable to get free trying to post up at the free-throw line, he tried to get
Stackhouse away from him by whistling a roundhouse right elbow at Stack's
left ear. (Side note: The elbow was so vicious that we think the NBA needs
to take a look at it - what's the difference between trying to take
someone's head off with a fist, or with an elbow? If a swing and a miss ever
deserves a suspension, then this one definitely falls in that category.) He
missed, but it was so blatant and obvious that the announcers had to comment
even though no foul was called and the play quickly moved to the other end
of the floor.
Pinto: "Snyder and Stackhouse [are] embroiled in quite a battle."
Ortegel: "Yes, they are, and that's an interesting battle."
The play moved to the Mavs' offensive end where Finley rattled in a
fairly quick 3, then quickly flowed back to the Jazz' offensive end. Snyder
drifted to the right angle 3-pt arc, and as the ball swung to the far side,
Stack stayed right in Snyder's face, in what I would term Rodman/Artest
style. There didn't appear to be any talking, but Stack got right in his
chest.
Snyder left the arc and slid to the low right blocks, and Stack
followed him and kept good defensive position. A shot was taken by the Jazz,
and to keep Snyder from any possible rebound, Stack wrapped his arm around
Snyder and sorta wrestled him to the ground with his right elbow/arm. The
throwdown wasn't particularly vicious nor did it seem to cause any harm, but
it did appear to be somewhat retaliatory in intent. The ref was right in
front of the play on the baseline, and the foul was called on Stack. As the
ref made the call, Stack seemed to wave at the ref as if to say "that's as
far as it will go."
The foul was a non-shooting foul, so Snyder inbounded from the right
side. After the inbounds pass, Snyder stepped onto the court, but Stack
stayed about 6 feet from him, apparently not wanting to get a cheap foul or
tech. The pass came back to Snyder at the arc, and when Stack still gave him
the 6-foot cushion, Snyder paused, then shot and made the 3. As the ball
left Snyder's hand on the shot, Ortegel presciently said, "I tell ya,
Stackhouse and Snyder are gonna come to blows before this thing is over."
(Side note: He was incredibly close with that prediction, wasn't he?) The
ball went in, the players started heading to the Mavs' offensive end, and
Pinto replied, "Snyder ties the game with a 3, and he and Stackhouse had
words heading the other way. Timeout called by the Mavericks." But the
camera showed both Stackhouse and Snyder as the timeout was called, and they
were merely heading off the court.
And then? And then, in what might have been a wise veteran move by a
rookie coach, after the timeout Stackhouse was on the Dallas bench. The two
players were not on the court at the same time for the rest of the quarter.
During the last half of the game, we saw nothing. There were no
incidents, and there didn't even appear to be any heated jawing.
At game's end, there was nothing we saw on-court between the two. For
those unaware of the American Airlines Center geography, we can tell you
that the exits to the locker rooms for each team are at opposite corners of
the court - so, nothing could have happened in a tunnel going off the court.
Our guess? We think things died down during the game, then an
accidental meeting after the game sparked words about the elbow and/or the
game's result. Was it an intentional meeting to settle a score? Was Snyder
mad that Stackhouse played in-your-face defense? Was Stackhouse mad that
Snyder threw a vicious elbow? Was Snyder mad that he didn't connect on his
elbow, and trying to prove he could connect on a punch? Was there, as
speculated, a "I'll-see-you-after-the-game'' exchange? We don't know answers
to any of the above for certain. . But we do know where it all may have
begun. David Lord, 04/10/05, 12:30 pm
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