Updated: May 28, 2006, 2:30 PM ET
After battle with Kobe, Bell toils in obscurity no more
By Sam Alipour
Special to ESPN.com
Who knew Raja Bell would be the pivotal player of the 2006 playoffs? Who knew the player most likely to get death threats would be a guy most fans couldn't pick out of a program?
A year ago, he was the fifth-leading scorer on a Utah Jazz team that won just 26 games.
Now he's the guy responsible for The Shot, The Clothesline and The Calf that continue to shape the most exciting NBA playoffs in memory.
For the Phoenix Suns, he's the tough guy who shadowed and harassed Kobe Bryant of the L.A. Lakers in one series, the sharpshooter who deflated the L.A. Clippers' dream season with a 3 from the corner and the player whose calf injury in Game 1 has altered the West finals vs. the Dallas Mavericks.
Saturday, an MRI confirmed that Bell suffered a partial tear in his left calf. That injury will keep him out of Game 3 on Sunday and perhaps future games.
"That's a little disappointing to hear," Bell told reporters Saturday. "It wasn't as [improved] as I wanted to see today. That's just the nature of the injury."
Bell initially hoped he would be able to play in Game 3, but the Suns' training staff told him his calf is not ready. Now he remains hopeful the original diagnosis of five-to-seven days holds true.
"It's not letting me do it, so there's no way I could talk myself into letting me do it," Bell said. "I just have to trust that they know better than I do what's good for me right now."
"It's been a great run, getting this far and playing the role that I've played." Bell told ESPN.com on Friday. "So to get hurt now ... it sucks, to be honest with you."
The Clothesline ... and Death Threats
AP Photo/Rick Hossman
When Bell boiled over, down went Kobe.
For many fans, their introduction to Raja Bell The Player came courtesy of Raja Bell The Wrestler, on May 2, the night he whacked Kobe Bryant. It was Game 5, a blowout win for the Suns in their first-round matchup with the Lakers. With 7:33 left to play, Bell wrapped his left arm around Bryant's neck and threw him to the floor.
He complained later that Kobe was elbowing him, but Bell's real beef with Bryant seemed to run much deeper.
"My problem with Kobe isn't that he doesn't respect me," Bell said. "I felt he was disrespecting me, and that he didn't care that he was doing it. I don't need respect, but you're not going to disrespect me.
"I feed off of that stuff," Bell continued. "As many contracts I get or years I play, I still feel like an underdog. That's what keeps me motivated in the gym on an off-day or on the treadmill in my house. It works for me. It's the way I have to be to have that edge."
Of course, toeing that edge can bring about periodic mishaps, like, say, going Rowdy-Raja-Piper on one of the league's top talents in the heart of a playoff race.
"It's a thin line," Bell admitted. "I play with a great deal of emotion. I tell people all the time, if that's what you want from me, then you have to be OK with the line getting crossed once in a while. Otherwise, I can't give you what you're asking."
Raja The ActorCuttino Mobley of the Clippers is just one of the folks around the NBA who thinks Bell is a little overdramatic when an opponent makes contact. So is Raja a flopper?
"He leads the league in charges, so yeah, Raja acts a little," said Mobley. "But you can't blame Raja. If it works, you do it."
"I took a drama class at FIU," Bell confirmed. "It was my favorite class. My instructor told me I'm good at it. "Sure, acting is a part of my game," he said. "If I let you hit me and I don't fall down, what does that prove? That I'm tough? When I think I've been hit, sometimes I have to help the refs see it."
Clippers veteran Cuttino Mobley, Bell's primary matchup in Round 2, has come to appreciate Bell's hard-nosed style of play.
"You need to think like Raja," Mobley said. "If you try to bump and bruise him, he's going to come after you. It's what you're supposed to do. Who wants to get beat up all the time?
"But is Raja a dirty player?" Mobley added. "I can tell you he isn't dirty with me."
Bell appreciates the sentiment, but he knows many peers would disagree. And he's OK with that.
"Before the Kobe incident, I would have challenged someone to call me dirty," Bell said. "I take pride in playing really hard without taking cheap shots.
"But I'm not a hypocrite," he said. "I definitely took a shot at Kobe. You bet. So people have a reason to call me dirty now. And that's fine with me."
Still, Bell insisted he wasn't the instigator.
"People forget, it was the Lakers who set the tone for that series," Bell said. "Kwame Brown standing over Boris. Luke Walton with the flagrant on Tim Thomas. They set the tone for a physical, chippy series.
"We weren't expected to succeed in that type of game," he said. "But since Amare went down, we've all taken an us-against-the-world attitude. And we've carried it through the playoffs. We may not talk trash, but we step up when it matters, collectively and individually. And, you know, I have a role to fill."
Does that role involve a leotard and face-paint?
"You could say I watched a little wrestling growing up," Bell said, barely containing his smile. "I didn't follow the storylines and the championship belts. But I picked up a few things."
So, even if he lost his cool, Bell knew what he was doing, and he expected to be ejected.
He even expected the one-game suspension that followed.
What he didn't expect was that it could endanger his life.
Before Game 6 of the Suns-Clippers series, an upbeat, defiant Bell walked along the water in L.A.'s Marina Del Rey.
"My uncle is my web site designer, so he gets the email," Bell said. "He forwarded them along, and I took a look at the not-so-nice subject headings. You could see there was a theme emerging."
These were hate mail and death threats, and they came fast and furious shortly after the clothesline-heard-around-L.A.
"I don't think I'm in any danger," Bell said. "NBA security is investigating the source of the emails. They made sure everything was safe for when I came back."
Still, there have been some moments. Upon returning to Los Angeles for Game 6 with the Lakers, the newly suspended Bell left the friendly confines of the team hotel in favor of watching the game at a local bar. Wisely, he brought the team security guard with him.
"There were probably 35 Lakers fans yelling at the screen and they were all unaware that I was there," Bell recounted. "Then the guy behind me says, 'I wonder where Raja's at? He thinks he can take Kobe? We should go over there and kick his ***.'
"Later, I'm in the bathroom washing my hands," Bell continued, "and the heckler walks in and uses the sink next to me. He looks up into the mirror and sees me standing there.
Raja The Ultimate FighterOn the eve of Game 6 against the Clippers, Bell looked forward to catching TNT's Wednesday night playoffs coverage, with a guest appearance by a certain No. 8.
"I'm looking forward to seeing Kobe and Charles go at it," he admitted, before taking aim at TNT's other analyst. "But I don't care too much for Kenny Smith right now. After the Kobe thing, Kenny said that I wouldn't want to take Kobe in an Octagon." Bell laughed, before adding, "And Kenny's right, I don't want Kobe. But guess who I want now?" Kenny Smith, you've been warned.
"He says, 'Oh my god, I had no idea you were here,'" Bell said, with a chuckle. "I didn't think it was a dangerous situation. We just watched the game and went back-and-forth, giving each other the business."
When Bell returned to Los Angeles -- this time to face the Clippers, this time as a participant -- the natives remained restless.
"I ran into another Lakers fan at our hotel," Bell said. "He was yelling that this was Kobe's town, shooting sets at me. Gang signs and such."
He paused for emphasis. "Keep in mind," Bell said. "This is the Ritz."
The notorious Ritz-Carlton gangbangers notwithtanding, Bell held out hope that cooler heads would prevail.
"I think these letters represent a very small number of Lakers fans," Bell said.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/playoffs2006/columns/story?id=2461262&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab1pos1
There's more but it's a long story so I just posted the link.
After battle with Kobe, Bell toils in obscurity no more
By Sam Alipour
Special to ESPN.com
Who knew Raja Bell would be the pivotal player of the 2006 playoffs? Who knew the player most likely to get death threats would be a guy most fans couldn't pick out of a program?
A year ago, he was the fifth-leading scorer on a Utah Jazz team that won just 26 games.
Now he's the guy responsible for The Shot, The Clothesline and The Calf that continue to shape the most exciting NBA playoffs in memory.
For the Phoenix Suns, he's the tough guy who shadowed and harassed Kobe Bryant of the L.A. Lakers in one series, the sharpshooter who deflated the L.A. Clippers' dream season with a 3 from the corner and the player whose calf injury in Game 1 has altered the West finals vs. the Dallas Mavericks.
Saturday, an MRI confirmed that Bell suffered a partial tear in his left calf. That injury will keep him out of Game 3 on Sunday and perhaps future games.
"That's a little disappointing to hear," Bell told reporters Saturday. "It wasn't as [improved] as I wanted to see today. That's just the nature of the injury."
Bell initially hoped he would be able to play in Game 3, but the Suns' training staff told him his calf is not ready. Now he remains hopeful the original diagnosis of five-to-seven days holds true.
"It's not letting me do it, so there's no way I could talk myself into letting me do it," Bell said. "I just have to trust that they know better than I do what's good for me right now."
"It's been a great run, getting this far and playing the role that I've played." Bell told ESPN.com on Friday. "So to get hurt now ... it sucks, to be honest with you."
The Clothesline ... and Death Threats
AP Photo/Rick Hossman
When Bell boiled over, down went Kobe.
For many fans, their introduction to Raja Bell The Player came courtesy of Raja Bell The Wrestler, on May 2, the night he whacked Kobe Bryant. It was Game 5, a blowout win for the Suns in their first-round matchup with the Lakers. With 7:33 left to play, Bell wrapped his left arm around Bryant's neck and threw him to the floor.
He complained later that Kobe was elbowing him, but Bell's real beef with Bryant seemed to run much deeper.
"My problem with Kobe isn't that he doesn't respect me," Bell said. "I felt he was disrespecting me, and that he didn't care that he was doing it. I don't need respect, but you're not going to disrespect me.
"I feed off of that stuff," Bell continued. "As many contracts I get or years I play, I still feel like an underdog. That's what keeps me motivated in the gym on an off-day or on the treadmill in my house. It works for me. It's the way I have to be to have that edge."
Of course, toeing that edge can bring about periodic mishaps, like, say, going Rowdy-Raja-Piper on one of the league's top talents in the heart of a playoff race.
"It's a thin line," Bell admitted. "I play with a great deal of emotion. I tell people all the time, if that's what you want from me, then you have to be OK with the line getting crossed once in a while. Otherwise, I can't give you what you're asking."
Raja The ActorCuttino Mobley of the Clippers is just one of the folks around the NBA who thinks Bell is a little overdramatic when an opponent makes contact. So is Raja a flopper?
"He leads the league in charges, so yeah, Raja acts a little," said Mobley. "But you can't blame Raja. If it works, you do it."
"I took a drama class at FIU," Bell confirmed. "It was my favorite class. My instructor told me I'm good at it. "Sure, acting is a part of my game," he said. "If I let you hit me and I don't fall down, what does that prove? That I'm tough? When I think I've been hit, sometimes I have to help the refs see it."
Clippers veteran Cuttino Mobley, Bell's primary matchup in Round 2, has come to appreciate Bell's hard-nosed style of play.
"You need to think like Raja," Mobley said. "If you try to bump and bruise him, he's going to come after you. It's what you're supposed to do. Who wants to get beat up all the time?
"But is Raja a dirty player?" Mobley added. "I can tell you he isn't dirty with me."
Bell appreciates the sentiment, but he knows many peers would disagree. And he's OK with that.
"Before the Kobe incident, I would have challenged someone to call me dirty," Bell said. "I take pride in playing really hard without taking cheap shots.
"But I'm not a hypocrite," he said. "I definitely took a shot at Kobe. You bet. So people have a reason to call me dirty now. And that's fine with me."
Still, Bell insisted he wasn't the instigator.
"People forget, it was the Lakers who set the tone for that series," Bell said. "Kwame Brown standing over Boris. Luke Walton with the flagrant on Tim Thomas. They set the tone for a physical, chippy series.
"We weren't expected to succeed in that type of game," he said. "But since Amare went down, we've all taken an us-against-the-world attitude. And we've carried it through the playoffs. We may not talk trash, but we step up when it matters, collectively and individually. And, you know, I have a role to fill."
Does that role involve a leotard and face-paint?
"You could say I watched a little wrestling growing up," Bell said, barely containing his smile. "I didn't follow the storylines and the championship belts. But I picked up a few things."
So, even if he lost his cool, Bell knew what he was doing, and he expected to be ejected.
He even expected the one-game suspension that followed.
What he didn't expect was that it could endanger his life.
Before Game 6 of the Suns-Clippers series, an upbeat, defiant Bell walked along the water in L.A.'s Marina Del Rey.
"My uncle is my web site designer, so he gets the email," Bell said. "He forwarded them along, and I took a look at the not-so-nice subject headings. You could see there was a theme emerging."
These were hate mail and death threats, and they came fast and furious shortly after the clothesline-heard-around-L.A.
"I don't think I'm in any danger," Bell said. "NBA security is investigating the source of the emails. They made sure everything was safe for when I came back."
Still, there have been some moments. Upon returning to Los Angeles for Game 6 with the Lakers, the newly suspended Bell left the friendly confines of the team hotel in favor of watching the game at a local bar. Wisely, he brought the team security guard with him.
"There were probably 35 Lakers fans yelling at the screen and they were all unaware that I was there," Bell recounted. "Then the guy behind me says, 'I wonder where Raja's at? He thinks he can take Kobe? We should go over there and kick his ***.'
"Later, I'm in the bathroom washing my hands," Bell continued, "and the heckler walks in and uses the sink next to me. He looks up into the mirror and sees me standing there.
Raja The Ultimate FighterOn the eve of Game 6 against the Clippers, Bell looked forward to catching TNT's Wednesday night playoffs coverage, with a guest appearance by a certain No. 8.
"I'm looking forward to seeing Kobe and Charles go at it," he admitted, before taking aim at TNT's other analyst. "But I don't care too much for Kenny Smith right now. After the Kobe thing, Kenny said that I wouldn't want to take Kobe in an Octagon." Bell laughed, before adding, "And Kenny's right, I don't want Kobe. But guess who I want now?" Kenny Smith, you've been warned.
"He says, 'Oh my god, I had no idea you were here,'" Bell said, with a chuckle. "I didn't think it was a dangerous situation. We just watched the game and went back-and-forth, giving each other the business."
When Bell returned to Los Angeles -- this time to face the Clippers, this time as a participant -- the natives remained restless.
"I ran into another Lakers fan at our hotel," Bell said. "He was yelling that this was Kobe's town, shooting sets at me. Gang signs and such."
He paused for emphasis. "Keep in mind," Bell said. "This is the Ritz."
The notorious Ritz-Carlton gangbangers notwithtanding, Bell held out hope that cooler heads would prevail.
"I think these letters represent a very small number of Lakers fans," Bell said.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/playoffs2006/columns/story?id=2461262&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab1pos1
There's more but it's a long story so I just posted the link.
