The Violent Tendencies Of Isiah Thomas

Spurs forward Bruce Bowen has a habit of sliding his feet under the feet of the man he's guarding when they go up for a jumpshot. It's an extremely dirty and dangerous play, and Bowen's got a history with it. Both Ray Allen and Vince Carter have wanted to beat his ass at various points in the not-too-distant past.

He did it to Knicks guard Steve Francis on Monday, injuring him, and causing him to miss this Saturday night Knicks/Spurs rematch. Isiah Thomas, when asked what he'd do if a player did the same thing to him, said this before the rematch:

"I'd beat the (stuffing) out of somebody," he said. "Really, I would. That's murder. Excuse me, but in the NBA, when you're in the air, you're really exposed and there's a certain code."

So last night, Bowen was near the Knicks bench, and he and Isiah got into a little bit of a jawing match that I'm pretty sure ended with Thomas saying, "Ah, fuck you." So Spurs coach Gregg Popovich started yelling at Isiah, Isiah yelled back, and this with the subplot of Gregg Popovich being best pals with Larry Brown, while Isiah Thomas did Larry Brown pretty dirty (though it certainly ended up working out well for Brown).

Unfortunately, they did make up after the game. It was just odd to see men with such different levels of credibility arguing. It's kind of like a priest getting into an argument with Mark Foley. Wait... that doesn't work. Nevermind.

League probing Francis' injury [ NJ.com] Cablevision: Knicks pay Brown $18.5M [ Yahoo! News]