Floofin sez: Good riddance you hacking, understepping, whining fuck. SAN ANTONIO (AP) -- Bruce Bowen won't be pestering the NBA's best anymore.
The 38-year-old former San Antonio Spurs forward retired Thursday after 12 seasons and a reputation as one of the league's most menacing defenders, hounding opponents with a tenacity that some players groused was more dirty than dogged.
He started alongside the Big Three during the championship runs in 2003, 2005 and 2007. Bowen went on to start 500 straight games before kicking New Orleans' Chris Paul in March 2008 and drawing a one-game suspension -- justice in the eyes of Bowen's critics.
Opposing fans vilified Bowen as a master of cheap shots and sneaky shoves. Amare Stoudemire once insisted Bowen purposely kicked him in the playoffs. Dirk Nowitzki said after a physical April playoff game that it was the Spurs who had a dirty player, not Dallas.
Nowitzki didn't mention Bowen by name. He didn't have to.
Bowen acknowledged Thursday only one play in which he purposely kicked another player: Ray Allen in a March 2006 game against the Seattle SuperSonics, a scuffle that earned him a $10,000 fine.
Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/basketball/nba/09/03/bowen.ap/index.html#ixzz0Q5otyG7z
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