Pacers center Roy Hibbert says Shane Battier went after his ‘family jewels’ on purpose

With 2:47 remaining in the first quarter of Wednesday's Game 1, Battier drove past Tyler Hansbrough and planted his right knee into Hibbert's midsection on a lay-up attempt. Battier was called for an offensive foul while Hibbert crumbled under the basket in pain




WILFREDO LEE/AP


Miami Heat forward Shane Battier drives his knee into Pacers center Roy Hibbert in Game 1.


MIAMI – In his younger days, Roy Hibbert admits he would've retaliated for Shane Battier kneeing him just above "my family jewels."

Instead, the 26-year-old Pacers center took to Twitter to tell everybody that the contact was purposeful, and Battier's attempt to deter him from guarding the rim was unsuccessful.

"They pay me all this money, I got to be there," Hibbert said ahead of Friday night's Game 2 at American Airlines Arena. "It's my job and they probably think the mentality is, 'If you hit him now, he gonna think about it and not put his body in the line of fire again.'

"But I have no problem with it. I have no problem putting my nuts in the line of fire."

With 2:47 remaining in the first quarter of Wednesday's Game 1, Battier drove past Tyler Hansbrough and planted his right knee into Hibbert's midsection on a lay-up attempt. Battier was called for an offensive foul while Hibbert crumbled under the basket in pain.

Hibbert then read an article that labeled the contact "inadvertent," prompting his response Thursday on Twitter.

"It hurt a lot. ... That's not a normal shooting motion for a lay-up," Hibbert said Friday. "You don't go with you knee by your nipple for a lay-up."

Hibbert, who was ejected from a February game against the Warriors for a shoving match with David Lee that spilled into the stands, said he had to squelch his thoughts of revenge.



Roy Hibbert drives to the basket and gets the best of Shane Battier in this encounter Wednesday.

"To be honest, I thought about it. But I said, ‘I need to be really make an impact offensively or defensively,'" he said. "So in my younger days I probably would have done something. But it's the playoffs, so we have chance to win this series and we need every possible body out there."

Battier left the Heat's shootaround without talking to the media, while Dwyane Wade laid out his philosophy for dealing with what he expects to be a physical series.

"Man up. You just have to man up and get into the game," he said. "If it's going to be that game, then you have to play it. Whatever the style is you have to play it. You can't do nothing about it.

"It's the Eastern Conference Finals. Two teams that want to move onto the finals it's not going to be a preseason game, it's not going to be a regular season game, it's going to be the Eastern Conference finals. You're going to leave the game feeling like you got hit by a Mack truck."

Hibbert, who was dominant in the previous series against the Knicks, said he hopes to be more of a defensive factor in tonight's Game 2, following Wednesday's effort when the Heat scored 60 points in the paint and Hibbert was benched for the final possession.

He also reiterated what his coach, Frank Vogel, said a day earlier about Miami having a more "intelligent attack at the basket" than the Knicks.

"Throughout (Wednesday's) game I can just hear LeBron talking to (Udonis) Haslem and (Chris) Bosh and (Chris Anderson) to say, ‘Be ready for that dump off pass,'" Hibbert said. "It's kind of putting me in an uneasy situation because you have LeBron coming at you 100 MPH and he can take off from anywhere, so what are you going to do? You gonna stop him or do you worry about that bounce pass? It's a conundrum.

"Carmelo was just coming straight at me. That's easier to deal with."