Can my esteem for the Spurs sink any further?

During last night's Spurs/Hornets game, Robert Horry set a pick on David West. No big deal, right? Wrong.

Here's the play:



Let's go over why this makes me so mad.

1. Horry threw his forearms into West's back. West has a bad back.

2. Horry got up on his toes to hit West high enough to hurt him.

3. West was in the air when Horry made contact. Who sets a pick on a guy in the air already? Oh right, Spurs players. That's who.

4. For the announcer to say "that's playoff basketball" is despicable. Intentionally injuring an opposing player is not playoff basketball. That's bush league and should warrant a suspension.

5. As West was on the ground, writhing in pain, Spurs fans chanted Horry's name.

The final ridiculous aspect of this play is courtesy of ESPN. On Sportscenter they showed the pick and asked if it was clean or not. A commentator (I don't know who it was) said the following (I'm paraphrasing):

"Robert Horry has won seven championships. He's a class act and in no way was this play dirty."

Um, what does the number of championships he has have to do with this? Dennis Rodman has multiple rings. Bill Laimbeer has multiple rings. Does that mean they were class acts?

And secondly, there was no mention of Horry's bodychecking Steve Nash into the scorer's table in the playoffs only a year ago. How do you fail to bring that up, Sportscenter? Maybe if the Nash incident had never occurred, I could give Horry the benefit of the doubt.

But it did, and I can't. I'm rooting hard for New Orleans to beat San Antonio down in Game 7 on Monday.

And I'm willing to bet most of the NBA fanbase is with me.