NBA Hawks' Sura penalized for miss

The guard intentionally missed a layup to get a triple-double.
ATLANTA (AP) -- Bob Sura didn't make any pretense about it.
Urged on by his teammates in a blowout game, the Atlanta Hawks' journeyman guard intentionally missed a layup just before the buzzer so he could get the rebound and make his small mark in history.
Sura was trying to become the first NBA player in seven years with three straight triple-doubles. The game was essentially over. What the heck?
The NBA didn't see it that way. Less than 24 hours after Sura's bit of self-gratification, the league ruled Tuesday that he wouldn't be rewarded for intentionally missing a shot.
The field goal attempt was taken away, which wiped out the rebound. Sura was left with 22 points, 11 assists and nine rebounds -- not 10 -- in the Hawks' 129-107 victory over the New Jersey Nets on Monday night.
So much for having three straight games with double figures in scoring, rebounding and assists -- a feat last accomplished by Grant Hill in 1997.
Apology
After flying to Boston for Atlanta's regular-season finale tonight, Sura issued a statement through a team spokesman.
"I'm disappointed that my attempt to turn my third triple-double caused so much controversy," he said. "It was never my intention to make a mockery of our sport and to take any attention away from our huge win over the Nets. If anyone was offended by my actions, I sincerely apologize."
Sura's motives didn't seem all that sinister -- "it was kind of a reaction thing," he said after the game -- but he joined the growing list of players and coaches who have resorted to underhanded tactics in an attempt to pad individual stats.
Ricky Davis, then with Cleveland, took matters to the extreme last season when he intentionally missed a shot at the wrong basket, with the idea of getting his own rebound and finishing off the first triple-double of his career.
It didn't work -- the NBA has a rule against trying to score for the opposing team. After his attempt, Davis was bear-hugged by an angry Utah player, fined by his own team and roundly condemned for his blatant attempt at personal glory.
Others
Davis wasn't the first. Six years ago, Connecticut women's basketball star Nykesha Sales, lost for the season with a torn Achilles' tendon, hobbled onto the court at the start of a game to make an uncontested layup that gave her the school scoring record.
In January 2002, Green Bay quarterback Brett Favre appeared to take a dive so New York Giants defender Michael Strahan could set the single-season sack record. Both players denied they were in cahoots.
And last November, a high school quarterback in Illinois, Nate Haasis, asked officials to erase a record-setting pass because his coach made a deal with the opposing team to allow a completion late in the game. The pass was disallowed and the coach resigned under pressure.
Michael Sachs, a sports psychologist at Temple University, praised Sura for apologizing and the NBA for striking the shady accomplishment from the record books.
"It's a good sign that this is not something we just accept as a matter of course," Sachs said. "There's still sportsmanship involved. There's still a sense of fair play and doing things the right way that people are concerned about."
Another view
But Bob Troutwine, a personnel and coaching consultant for several pro football teams, said it's not necessarily harmful when players focus on personal achievements.
In fact, it can be good for the psyche of the whole team -- especially a team such as the Hawks, who will miss the playoffs for the fifth year in a row.
"It's uplifting to not only the individual, but the team," said Troutwine, who is based in Kansas City, Mo. "It can energize a team. I can understand the internal reasons why a coach would want a player to do that."
The NBA's basketball operation department made the decision not to count Sura's rebound.
"I don't know if there are any messages in this," said Brian McIntrye, a league spokesman. "We saw something that needed to be corrected, so we made the correction."