I’ll admit I’m biased, but Dahntay Jones’ defense on Kobe on this late shot attempt in last night’s game was at best a shooting foul and more likely in that gray area that Jalen Rose described as being "Not an accident," when he was in a similar tussle with Kobe in the 2000 Finals.
This isn’t the first time Jones has tripped Kobe, and there isn’t much difference between aggressively defending a player and disregarding that player’s safety. Maybe Jones didn’t want to sideline Kobe, but his argument that Kobe invited the contact by kicking out his leg is a poor one. It was a jump shot fading to the baseline and Jones took that final step only after Kobe was at the top of his jump.