NBA Playoffs: Anybody Figure Out What Is and Is Not a Flagrant Foul Yet?

(Photo by Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images)

The NBA sure isn't helping Kobe understand.

The league office rescinded the flagrant-2 foul on Anthony Johnson today, which he originally accrued by swinging his elbow on a shot attempt and busting open Mo Williams' face.

Personally, I didn't think it warranted the penalty, but I'm not the league office that is supposed to pride itself on being fair and consistent in its rulings

I believe Stan Van Gundy was quoted as saying that it's very rare that an offensive player will pick up the flagrant foul in that situation.

Try telling that to Kobe Bryant, who has been suspended twice for hitting defenders in the face with his elbow while following through in what the league called an unnatural manner.

Not to nit-pick here, but chances are if you're hitting somebody the same height as you in the face with the elbow of your non-shooting, you probably aren't following through on your natural shooting motion.

On the flip-side, at least the league issued a hindsight flagrant-1 penalty on Dahntay Jones for tripping Bryant after getting beat pretty badly on back-cut by the Mamba.

George Karl is probably right that Bennet Salvatore wouldn't have called that a flagrant on first sight, but he probably would have gone to the replay and seen that, whether it was instinctual or not, it was obviously on purpose and that was a flagrant foul, if for no other reason than it's a bitch-move that can get somebody hurt.

It's probably appropriate that George Karl referred to Dahntay Jones as playing a "Bruce Bowen" role for the Nuggets, since Bowen was known for these exact sort of cheap-shots, only he got away with them

Well, just another day at the league office, where apparently they're lucky if they know up from down these days, let alone the difference between a flagrant foul and a personal foul.

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