FanPost

What should he have done?

This is in regards to David West tapping Dirk's cheek and Dirk choosing not to retaliate.  Should Dirk have done something at that point or was he ultimately smarter for not stooping to West's level?

Apparently the guys at TNT had a debate over this very thing (I had gone to the Magic game earlier, so I didn't see any of this) and according to what is reported on DallasBasketball.com, the TNT crew believe that Dirk should have retaliated in some way.

Does doing nothing make Dirk soft?  In my mind, no; maybe this is homer-istic of me or maybe I am biased since he is my favorite player, but I thought it was smart of him to just stand there and not fight back.  He'd already been suspended for an unintentional hard foul on Kirilenko in the regular season.  What would the league have done if he intentionally shoved or slapped West back, even though he was provoked?  The intensity during games is usually turned up several notches come playoff time, but would the referees (or the league) have taken that into account if Dirk physically responded to West's taunts?

Perhaps Dirk, team-oriented as always, was putting the team's interests foremost in his mind.  Retaliation could lead to a suspension and the team can hardly afford not to have him on the floor.

What do you think?

 

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