Did Horry Intentionally Harm West?

Did you see the headline on Yahoo! Sports, "Cheap shot, Bob?" Despite the character defamation implied in the headline, Adrian Wojnarowski has a mostly even-handed take on what happened last night:

Byron Scott... considered the possibility that Robert Horry had turned into Cheap Shot Bob again.

The old man of these San Antonio Spurs had delivered a dubious blow to the bad back of the Hornets’ David West, and the coolest, calmest coach in the NBA was seething through that stoic disposition.

“I’m not real OK with it,” Scott told Yahoo! Sports. “But if I didn’t know Robert on a personal level, I’d say that was a dirty shot. Yeah, if I didn’t know him the way I know him, I’d say it was a cheap shot.”

“I also think he understood what he was doing,” Scott said.

Which was this: He had a chance to hit West, hit him hard and what were the odds that Horry was going to pass on it? Right, right. These are the Spurs, and they’re going to fight you to the ends of earth to take them out of the tournament. They’re the champs and they dictate terms of engagement.

Perhaps Horry’s done making clutch shots in the playoffs, but the seven-time champion forever finds ways to make himself relevant. Here’s his genius: He picked his spot brilliantly. This act didn’t border on a flagrant foul. There will be no fine, no suspension. Yet your eyes dictated a different truth, something that Scott said: Horry knew what he was doing. He knew whom he was hitting and where he was hitting him.

“I’ll take a look at it, but right now, I’ll just say he caught me with a good shot,” West said.

If Horry was trying to knock you out of Monday night, did it work?

“No … no,” West assured. “It wasn’t that good of a shot.”

Fan reaction has been predictably biased. Ron Hitley has excellent, comprehensive coverage of the story at Hornets247.com ("Game 6 Aftermath: Friday News Wrap") that is definitely worth checking out.

Atthehive, who is moderator of the SB Nation Hornets fan site of the same name, called Horry's foul: "Dirty... Bush-league at its finest. And to think the guys over at that Spurs blog were calling OUR players classless? Unbelievable." After having some time to relax and think about it, atthehive still believes the foul was intentional, while asking, "Was it Dirty?"

Spurs fans over at PtR reacted to atthehive's post in a mostly calm and rationale manner, summed up by Windex40's remark:

Any player who knows you have to set a screen on a ginormous man (AKA Mr. West) knows you’re going to have to lean into a bit just to slow down his momentum. You can’t set a screen on West straight up you’ll get trampled and knocked outa the play. So yes, the pick was intentional, the harm was not.

Hornets fans and Spurs haters will believe what they want to believe, but this story is ultimately irrelevant to the outcome of last night's game and, hopefully, game seven.

Here's wishing David West a speedy recovery by Monday night.