According to Andrew Bogut, the Chosen One chose to dive into the cameraman's lens?
USA TODAY Sports reported that Bogut, the Golden State Warriors center whose hard foul on LeBron James led to his head wound on a television camera, suggested James had a hand in his own injury.
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"I think he jumped into the cameraman," Bogut said when asked to give his perspective on the play, according to USA TODAY. "Yeah, I think he came down and took two steps and then fell into the cameraman. I definitely, definitely didn't hit him that hard."
When a reporter asked, "That's how you saw it?" Bogut was emphatic.
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"No, that's how it was. If you look at the replay, you can see the two steps being taken and then him falling into the camera. That's what we saw on the replay, and that's what my teammates saw."
USA TODAY Sports suggested that both Bogut and teammate Andre Iguodala seemed to think James exaggerated his contact on the play to draw a Flagrant 2 foul on Bogut.
"The Warriors' Andre Iguodala, it appeared, wasn't nearly so willing to give him the benefit of the doubt," USA TODAY reported. "Late in the third quarter, when Iguodala was fouled going to the rim, he held his arm in dramatic fashion before giving Stephen Curry a low-five with the same arm while smiling. One Warriors player who was asked if they'd noticed Iguodala's comedy act deemed it 'tremendous.'"
To be fair, Iguodala did return to hold his arm momentarily after low-fiving Curry.
ABC play-by-play announcer Mike Breen said James simply lost his balance. It's conceivable that James did a bit of an acting job and then lost his balance because of it.
Whatever the case, the James that returned looked nothing like the James in the first three games of the NBA Finals. He shot 7-of-22 from the floor, missed five free throws and finished with 20 points in 41 minutes.
If James' exaggeration was the culprit of his cut that required stitches after the game, he may not repeat that effort. But it's a safe bet that Andrew Bogut will give him another hard foul at some point during the rest of the postseason.
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