LA Sparks-Detroit Shock Game Ends in Skirmish
July 23, 2008
There will be repercussions for the fight that erupted during the Detroit Shock-Los Angeles Sparks WNBA game.
With just a few seconds remaining in the game (4.6 seconds), after a free throw Plenette Pierson intentionally entangled herself with Candace Parker. Pierson pulled Parker to the ground, causing herself to also fall. Pierson then rose from the ground indignant, and purposely ran into the still-prone Parker and a scuffle ensued. According to an Associated Press game article, Parker attempted to punch Pierson. Deanna Nolan then tackled Parker as she tried to rise from the ground.
Apparently, the skirmish might have been an offshoot of the play before when Cheryl Ford fouled Parker and the two players had to be separated.
During the encounter between players from the two teams Detroit assistant coach Rick Mahorn allegedly pushed Lisa Leslie and other Delisha Miltoin-Jones punched Mahorn in the back. Mahorn, Parker, Pierson, and Milton-Jones were ejected. Nolan who escalated the affair by tackling Parker only received a technical as did Shock guard Shannon Bobbitt.
Ford sprained her knee attempting to restrain Pierson and and to be assisted from the floor in a wheelchair.
Shock head coach Bill Laimbeer is known to exhort his players to play the game in a similar style to his own during his playing days:rough and constantly on the edge of what can be either termed as physical or dirty play. Though Mahorn was known for the same type of play as Laimbeer, in depictions of the two coaches’ relationships to the Shock players it is Mahorn who is the mediator between Laimbeer, the “tough-love”coach, and the players; while Laimbeer incites, Mahorn is the peacemaker. After the game Sparks head coach Michael Cooper said that Mahorn was being a peacemaker but is so big that any physical action on his part would appear as something more than what it was.
It will be interesting to see how the WNBA comes down on this event.
