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1. Compare Mayo's stride as he walks towards the official with the steps he takesas he's leaving the court after being ejected. While advancing on the ref, hisstride is longer and quicker and, with his upper torso leaning forward, he is movingwith more force and purpose than what he is as he exits the court.
2. Notice the angle that Mayo is walking. He is bearing straight down on theofficial as opposed to coming at a wider angle to head him off and intercept him. He's clearly looking to make contact.
3. Look closely at Mayo's last step with his right foot as he is about to makecontact. He swings it far out to the right in an effort to keep his bearing onmaking contact.
4. By swinging his right foot out, Mayo turned or opened up his upper body so as tomake full contact with his left shoulder, arm and left side of his chest with thereferee. Mayo appears to be 4-6 inches taller than the referee so his upper body ishigher than that of the official. As a result, the referee's movement post contactis both to the left and downward.
5. Mayo makes contact with enough force that, after striking the official, he,himself, is thrown off balance. In other words, he collides with the ref with suchforce that once the ref is no longer an impediment to his forward momentum, helurches forward. That shows he did not slow up. He, in effect, ran through theref.
6. Now, focus on the referee. He clearly is not anticipating what is comingbecause he's looking at the scorer's table and signaling with his hands. Thecontact takes him by surprise.
7. Look at the referee's last steps. Just prior to contact, his right foot haspushed off the floor and his left foot is striking the floor, which means, ofcourse, that he has transferred his body weight on the left side. Thus, thereferee's body is already inclined to move left as he is knocked off stride by thecontact. That is what sends the referee flying, not flopping.
8. As the referee falls to the floor, he allows his body to go with the motionrather than trying to counter it. That's the smart thing to do in a fall. If youjump from a car, you want your body to go forward with the motion of the car, notbackwards and against it. If you jump from a wall, you hit the ground and roll inthe direction your fall takes you. It's the same principle.
9. As the referee falls he extends his arms and hands forward, which lead somepeople to concude he took a "dive." Wrong again. Extending your upper extremitiesas you fall down is the correct thing to do to avoid landing hard on your body orbanging your head.
Now, that you've read this, go look at the clip again. Pause it and rewind it atevery critical juncture to see if you agree with what I see.
Here's what ticks me off. Mayo hires an attorney and obtains a injunctionprohibiting the enforcement of sanctions and then, through his attorney, negotiatesa penalty of a three-game suspension. I guess if your name is OJ and you go to USCyou can get away with murder--literally and figuratively.
