I don’t follow professional basketball very closely, but I was absolutely stunned by a play late in a recent playoff game between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Dallas Mavericks. The Mavericks, already leading the series 3-0, were ahead by 30 points in the final quarter of the fourth game. Dallas guard Jose Barea drove to the basket, and as he rose to the rim for a layup, Lakers center Andrew Bynum came across the lane and drove his elbow into Barea’s ribcage. Cheap shot doesn’t begin to describe it. Bynum did not attempt to make a play on the ball, Barea was completely stretched out and exposed, and after Bynum’s vicious blow, Barea collapsed in a heap on the floor. You can see the video here. (For a local comparison, it was much worse than the forearm strike by Gerald Henderson that bloodied Tyler Hansbrough’s nose in 2007.) Bynum was ejected, and I assume that the NBA will fine and suspend him. But could and should he be prosecuted criminally? There have been a number of criminal prosecutions arising out of violent conduct during the course of sporting events. At the professional level, Todd Bertuzzi of the Vancouver Canucks was charged criminally for an in-game assault of another hockey player that left the latter with a broken neck. At the amateur level, sexual assault charges were brought last year against a high school wrestler as a result of his use of the “butt drag” against a teammate – a move [...]
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