The whole ethic of the team now must be questioned. A hard foul which resulted in injury, and not one 36er even eyeballed Abney for it. Not backing up your team-mates is the worst sin of all.

Throwing a ball away and throwing a towel = 6 shots and posession

Breaking a players arm from a sickening foul = 2 shots and no posession.

hmm...

Bullsh .. the techs didn't help, but when the guys play gutless D from the 8min mark of the second qtr - you're not going to win. We let them score 116 - that is purely unacceptable. Too many wanna-be heroes at the end, not enough balls on D during the game. At least Horvath was man enough to give a damn on both ends of the floor (sorry, cooper did too...) and to care enough about the game to get angry when we were being screwed.

Hey hey hey, easy there anon. Id rather see an occasional brain explosion from a passionate, PERFORMING player than watch a team fade into mediocrity without so much as a whimper. Yes it was a silly thing but the guy has been awesome all year in an under performing team. Let him blow up in a game that we decided was a little bit too hard to win and see if that instills some testicular fortitude into the other guys.

Now that is one negative thing that I DID have about the game. His teammates should have given it to Abney HARD, and backed up Hill. That WAS dissapointing.

.. and, for that matter - some dude breaks a teammates arm, you put him on his arse the next three times he gets the ball, and EVERY time he drives. show some pride in your colours and some team-spirit. Fly the friggin flag ... pussies.

In Abneys defence, and i know people will have a go, but the guy made a hard foul which occurs in every game every week, it just was unfortunate Brad broke his arm from it. Abney was obviously concerned, he rushed straight over and didnt play d hard again until the second half. Most coaches would want there players to commit the hard foul to stop the layup, all bar ours but he is hardly a coach now is he

Absolutely agree, a team mate goes down you stand behind them in force and make damn sure that the whole of the other team are aware that if you go at one of us we go at all of you. This is a team game lets start acting like a team.

that was a very selfish moment, and you could see all the players just drop their heads and that was the game. At that point in time we could have still got up (not knocking him at all this year just that moment). Agree on the lack of support for hill, and we really were slack for the other 3 quarters on D and no one really wanted to take a shot so we forced a lot especially late.

I wished i could get out there and show Abney what a hard foul was. There was a number of opportunities when Sixer players could have made a statement but opted for the soft option.

Im sure he knows what a hard foul is, i mean he did break someones arm

What I didnt understand is why an athletic power forward needed to 'commit the hard foul' on a guard? You go up clean and block his shot into the crowd. He didnt look like he was going for the block at all.

and you can foul hard without grabbing. Mortal sins in bball are to push in the back, take legs out from under or to pull a player (eg. grab arm and pull down) - all these things mean a player loses control of how they land - and THAT is why it should have been unsportmanslike.

Its the only chink in Horvath's armour, he gives too many cheap fouls. He did it in the first quarter and its been going on all season.
Unfortunately for us, he was the only 36er who really really wanted the ball in the paint, and he has to stay on the floor for our offence to have any balance.

Adelaide's playing group just showed how soft they are tonight.

If Cattalini or Sapwell were playing in that game, no way Abney doesn't end up on his back a number of times during the game.

Soft lazy coach = soft lazy playing group.

There were a couple of times late when it was all set up for Cooper to put him on his back.. but he gave a soft little foul.

Sometimes you have to step up and play tough, and stop being the league nice guys.

Anon #105674, what sort of a monster are you to suggest the reverse situation to be good. I don't know about you but I don't want to go and watch players injured like that regardless of which side they play for. It was a sickening act and Abney got away with it. He didn't even have the decency to apologise to Hill, instead walked away. Horvath didn't lose the game tonight, the game was lost from the moment Hill hit the floor. The whole game changed from that moment. The refs were disgusting tonight. They restrict the Sixers in how they play the game by calling every soft foul under the sun and yet let the opposition get away with so many hard fouls. Visiting teams come and do just what they want to with very little consequence yet the Sixers have to watch every move they make. You cannot play your best game under those conditions.

Ok ok ok, the guy who started this thread you've done it now, since those lil' arguments we had about dusty back a few weeks i havent said a word more, but i cant hold it in any longer now, since then "Mr. Reliable" has had a 12pt game, a 10pt game, an 8pt game and a 6pt game (this is as a starter getting very good minutes by the way) and you'd still rather have dusty than Horvath. i know your reasoning for this is his little 'brain explosion' but i dont think we can really even judge that without knowing exactly what he said... if all he did was throw the ball and wave the towell then it was bullsh!t and he didnt deserve the techs anyway so SHUTUP!

Anonymous (#9329)
"think i wont be returning to the dome now until a coaching change is made"

YOU won't be missed

horvath over dusty is a no-brainer,

dusty was a great servant for us but horvath is just a cut above him,

i reckon there would have been alot of players in horvath shoes getting worked up he was beeing fouled more times then copelands age

Horvath is great but inconsistent. He can score 30 and he can score 10. He scores well for only a portion of the game and not consistently throughout. Dusty was a regular 20 scorer with Adelaide. You could plan around what you would get from him. They are both different players in my opinion and have different ways of contributing. Dusty was also less noticeable on the court which was an advantage.

The game had changed well before the Horvath incident. I too was amazed that not one Sixer made any attempt to front up to Abney. In fact, I saw that great enforcer Nash standing up in front of the bench laughing!
Sure the refereeing was shocking, but the game plan of the Sixers was much worse! And the coaching, well we need say no more!

after it happenend all iwas thinking is were is cat or rees to get in the face of abney and swing those unco elbows around

Squid, you could be watching a cooking show and find a way to drag poor Nashy into the conversation! ;)

EC were you at the game??

Did you not see that after Abney's foul on Brad that as soon as his feet hit the ground he rushed over and checked if Brad was ok, along with Williamson (i think)......

Hmmm ...thought process "i've done something really stupid, i'm about to be called for it, what should I do to make it look not-so-bad? I KNOW ! i'll act concerned (where if i was concerned, i wouldn't have done it in the first place), and everyone will think it wasn't intentional ! some fools will even defend my actions ! "

Seriously Melvin....if he wasnt concerned about it at all he wouldnt have gone over there at all and after the incident did you notice the next 2 fast breaks on Abney where he did NOT commit to any defence....

Horvarth showing a bit of passion, nothing wrong with that, except I would have rather seen 2-3 tech fouls given for roughing up Abney after his cowards foul on Hill, rather than waste his boot on the chair.

cLaRkY, yes I was at the game. I go with 2 other people and the half hour drive home after the game was spent non stop talking about the incident. In fact I attend upstairs after the game and the table of people I was with all agreed it was a malicious attack on Hill. If Abney was only going to block the shot, why did he come onto him with so much force and cause such a sickening injury. As for Abney's remorse, it really showed how affected he was by the incident by scoring 30 points. He had no problems whatsoever concentrating on the game and getting all his shots in. What he did to Hill was the last thing on his mind.

EC, he's a professional player.

I was horrified when I heard about the injury, but from what I heard about the incident, side with those suggesting that it was a hard foul with an extremely unfortunate result.

Isaac - your right I dont hink Nash is any good at cooking squid ;)

Isaac, you weren't there.

Yeah, but when I read your account and I hear the accounts of friends who were at the game and might tend to present a less biased opinion and have a decent vantage point, I favour their version of events.

I saw the video footage - Abney went straight to Brad after the foul - an unsportsmanlike foul at worst, but more likely a disastrous, mistimed block attempt.

Saying that he could've gone for a softer block is like suggesting players can finger roll instead of dunk, after all, it's still two points, right? Players have gone for massive swats in basketball for decades - in this instance it is just incredibly unfortunate that he struck Brad's arm the way he did, and that Brad then fell on it.

And don't get me wrong, I was shocked when I heard about it. My girlfriend's been telling me to get over it and stop talking about how horrific it must've been all day.

OK Isaac like you, I did not see the game live but have watched the replays and have heard from friends who were there that the foul went beyond hard. A hard foul is a hit not a grab or pull down.

Abney is a clown with little sense and no feeling, he had to display some remorse (heaven forbid he face the NBL head and be fined $1.50). Its easy to seem remorseful watch "Heal Im sorry for booing your attempts at being Olympic point guard, if theres any thing I can do to . . " etc etc look how remorseful I am yet deep down I still thinks he's a tool.

I wasn't at the game, but saw the vision twice tonight on news services.

It was a hard foul, and should have been called unsportsmanlike, however it wasn't. Unfortunately the vision didn;t carry on much beyond Hill landing, but it did appear Abney went straight over to him.

EC - as for complaining Abney then went on to score 30 points, he did what he meant to do...be a professional basketball player....things happen on court, you deal with it when it happens, get over it and play on. What did you expect Abney to do, offer to drive the ambulance himself, or go and take the x rays??

He went straight to Hill's aid, and did what he could, no doubt apologised to Brad at the time.

Thats exactly my poitn (made by yogee & isaac), i wont deny that it wasnt a hard foul and that it didnt deserve an unsportsmanlike. But to suggest that Abney did not care or show remorse for what he did is just stupid, practically everyone in the building saw the foul and if they were paying attention they would have seen Abney rush to Brad's side and check if he was ok.

It is a horrible thing to see in a game of basketball, but fans and players all need to get on with life...Even with the crowd booing him from the stadium, Abney continued to do what he is payed to and play basketball....

I was at the game. From my position at the half way line, it was not a hard foul but a cowardly attack from behind. A hard foul would be if his arms were hacked or grabbed. Abney took Hill's arms as well as forcefully pushing him to the ground. A coward's first defence is to feign remorse and show concern in order that he is not the subject of retribution, Tattoos don't make you tough but they could hide the heart of a coward.

I only played basketball for a couple of seasons in a very low grade bur I learned there were tow things you didn't do and they were you never tunnel a player when he was in the air and you never under any circumstances intentionally tried to injure a player. I believe that Abney achieved his goal but the injury was more severe than he intended.

I still remember Darren Smith injuring his knee in an exhibition game here in Adelaide, and Adelaide fans booing him and stop telling him to be soft - he was out for nearly 2 seasons with the knee injury.

I don't think some Adelaide fans can complain about other players not giving a hoot (and in fact the only Adelaide person that went to Smith's aid was Smyth and the Adelaide doctor at the time)

The headline of the game highlights on Fox video is 'Crocodiles snap 36ers' - talk about an unfortunate title! :(

Didn't anyone else notice after the Brad Hill incident that on numerous 2 on ones, Abney instead of going for the monster block opted out and instead let them go. If i can recall it happened about three times after that. I actually think that it shook him up a bit defensively.

you're forgetting one thing patty... abney cant block for $h!t