Collins, looking zaftig nowadays, caused an uproar in Cleveland Friday when he tagged LeBron James with a flagrant foul — an incident inflamed by The King’s observation that the hit was “borderline dirty.” Replays indicated the former Nets center tried to wrap James up — and failed miserably.
“Yeah, I tried,” Collins said with a laugh, before slapping his right biceps. “But he ran into the python, man — what do you want? I was just going to give him a hard foul, wrap him up. But he fell too quickly for me to wrap him up. It’s one of those plays that happens in the game — nothing personal behind it.”
Brian Stensaas/Star Tribune, Jason Collins on the foul:
“Its just one of those plays that happened. I wasn’t going to get dunked on. I was just going to give him a hard foul and wrap him up. But he fell too quickly for me to wrap him up.”
James called the play “borderline dirty.” Mr Collins?
“He;s entitled to his opinion. There was no intent to hurt him. There was just intent to give him a hard foul and wrap him up. I think he understands that.”
James stayed down for a couple of minutes and, afterward, he called the play “borderline dirty.”
Jarron Collins disagreed.
“My brother had a split-second decision to make,” he said. “‘Do I take the charge or do I foul him? But if I take the charge, LeBron will probably still dunk on me.’ So he decided to foul him. …
“He didn’t mean it to be malicious or anything. He just wanted to stop his penetration. And he stopped it. It was just a foul.”