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Jarrett Jack had a perfectly good reason to start tying one of his shoes in the game against the Chicago Bulls last Saturday night.
The shoe had become untied.
Seriously, the Raptors' point guard said yesterday following practice that he wasn't trying to disrespect the Bulls by putting the ball under his arm and tying a shoe as the final seconds in the third quarter ticked off. And he's shocked by the overwhelming (mostly negative) response.
"I didn't know it was going to be that much of a big deal," Jack said. "Everybody was like calling me and saying I was crazy. But my shoe came untied. And when I was looking up, I saw that they were kind of confused on defence, and I was like: 'Hey, why don't get my shoe together, while they're trying to get their defence together?' "
The Raptors were heading toward a 110-78 blowout over the Bulls, so there's the suggestion that Jack was rubbing Chicago's nose in it. Even his own coach was unimpressed.
"If it was one of our guys guarding their guy and the guy tied his shoe, I would expect our guy to go over and knock him on his ass," Raptors coach Jay Triano said. "A 30-point game, what would have another foul done? I might have just gone over and shoved him on his ass."
Jack explained that there was enough space between him and the closest Chicago defender that, if the guy had gone at him, he would have had time to turn around and react accordingly, without giving up the ball.
STEVE.BUFFERY@SUNMEDIA.CA
