Jason Terry will miss time due to a broken orbital bone, and it was all thanks to the powerful elbow of one Corey Brewer. But Terry’s teammate DeShawn Stevenson has a bigger lament than JET’s missed court time. From Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News:
“The only thing I’d like for us is to bring a little toughness,’' Stevenson said. “The situation that happened to Jason, I don’t want to say ‘give somebody a cheap shot.’ But we got to help each other out, be a little tougher.’'
“I don’t want to say anything (that we should) hurt anybody. But we got to send a message. Personally, I didn’t like what happened to Jason. I just felt like we should have taken a hard foul to send the message that we’re here.’'
Son, we live in a world that has basketball courts, and those courts have to be guarded by ‘enforcers.’ Whose gonna do it? You? DeShawn Stevenson have a greater responsibility than you could possibly fathom. You weep for the victims of hard fouls, and you curse the players that dole them out. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what Stevenson knows. That every hard foul or cheap shot, while tragic, probably saves lives. And DeShawn Stevenson’s existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives.
You don’t want the truth because deep down in places you don’t talk about at parties, you want Stevenson on that court, you need him on that court. NBA players use words like toughness, intimidation, loyalty. They use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something. You use them as a punchline.
DeShawn has neither the time nor the inclination to explain himself to a fan who watches his favorite star players rise and sleep under the blanket of the very freedom that he provides, and then questions the manner in which he provides it. He would rather you just said “thank you,” and went on your way, Otherwise, I suggest you pick up an NBA contract, and stand your ground against the beasts of the NBA.
So would Stevenson have ordered the Code Red?
He would’ve done the job he --
Would he have ordered a Code Red?!
YOU’RE GODDAMNED RIGHT HE WOULD.
