Is there such a thing as too much hustle?

It can be frustrating to think about the propriety of “unwritten” rules in sports, since there often is no easy correct answer; the rules are, after all, unwritten and thus open to endless interpretation. But over the weekend, the NBA presented us with two fascinating little incidents that get at the question of whether there is ever such a thing as inappropriate hustle.

The first happened on Saturday night, when Bulls center Omer Asik dived shoulder-first for a loose ball at the end of the third quarter and collided with Chris Bosh’s left leg. The Heat forward was bending over at the waist in a failed attempt to pick up the ball without getting on the floor, so his legs were more or less straight — and thus in a bad position to absorb a collision with Asik.

After the game, Bosh offered up the following quotes (via ESPN.com’s Brian Windhorst):

“C’mon, that is how guys get hurt, that is how serious injuries happen,” Bosh said. ”You’ve got to watch people’s legs. I know guys want to hustle and everything but we all want to play and provide for our families and have a job.” ”We all want to be healthy and that is very important,” said Bosh. “If it is by somebody’s leg, don’t dive for the ball, it’s too close.”

I get what Bosh is saying here, though his point is absurd. In the NFL, it’s considered dirty (and in many cases illegal) to hit a quarterback below the knee when the quarterback is standing upright in the throwing position. It’s a dangerous play, one that can result in some ugly snapping and tearing. It’s not necessarily easy for a defensive lineman to recognize that situation in the moment, but it’s probably easier for that lineman to pull up than it is for an NBA player in Asik’s situation. Sack artists pursue the quarterback on nearly every passing play; they do the same thing over and over, and I’d guess they learn how and when to make contact with the QB.

The loose ball situation in the Chicago-Miami game isn’t quite the same, because it isn’t a play that duplicates itself in any precise way in the NBA. It was a chaotic scrum. Asik saw the ball on the floor and did what he was supposed to do — particularly in a close game (the Bulls led 73-68) against a big-time opponent. Bosh’s suggestion that NBA players agree not to pursue loose balls when someone’s leg is in the general vicinity is ridiculous and impossible, and he’s wrong for criticizing Asik’s hustle.

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The shoving match at the end of Sunday’s Lakers-Clippers game was a more nuanced thing. Randy Foye was at the foul line with 5.7 seconds left and the Clippers leading 98-90. In other words, the game was decided, and all the players were probably ready to stroll up the court and into the tunnel after Foye’s free throw. Only, Blake Griffin wasn’t in on that agreement. Griffin was positioned behind Lamar Odom during Foye’s free throws, and he went hard for the potential rebound of Foye’s second attempt. (Foye made the shot.)

As you can see from the two video angles here, Griffin hooked his right arm into Odom’s chest and shoved Odom — pretty hard — underneath the rim. It might have been a foul, but the officials did not call one. In any case, Odom got upset, grabbed Griffin’s jersey and used it to swing Griffin into the baseline area. Odom conceded after the game that he might have overreacted, but he defended himself by essentially saying Griffin didn’t need to try so hard with the game decided:

“To ram in the back up nine, I just … I don’t get it.”

I’m torn on this one. My initial reaction was that these guys are professional basketball players paid enormous sums of money to play hard, and if Griffin takes that responsibility so seriously as to play every second with the same intensity, that is absolutely his right.

But there have been times when I’ve felt players acted with needless aggression in game situations in which very little was at stake. I vividly remember being angry with New Jersey Devils defenseman Scott Stevens over this brutal hit with 17 seconds left in a playoff game the Devils led 2-0 (see about the 22-second mark of the clip). The announcers agreed the hit was clean, and professional hockey players are supposed to keep their heads up and play hard for 60 minutes, right? And perhaps there is value to intimidating your opponent when you have to play it several more times in the same series.

Still, I found something distasteful about Stevens going so hard after a guy, leaving him bloodied and unable to get up for a long while in a game that was obviously decided. It seemed malicious.

I felt the same way about Warren Sapp’s infamous block on a Packers offensive lineman, Chad Clifton, in 2002. Clifton was lumbering after a Tampa Bay defensive back who had just snagged an interception and was returning the ball toward the end zone. Clifton didn’t see Sapp coming, and Sapp leveled him. Clifton had to be carted off the field, and several Packers accused Sapp of committing a cheap shot.

The hit was legal, but I found it malicious at the time. Clifton was in the middle of the field, and the guy with the ball — a much faster player than Clifton — was running along the sideline. Clifton had no chance to catch him and could not influence the play in any way. Sapp was certainly allowed to block him, but the block didn’t do anything to help Sapp’s teammate take the ball further. In other words, nothing was at stake.

Griffin’s act was obviously nowhere near the Stevens and Sapp plays in terms of its level of aggression. Putting an arm into Odom’s side and shoving him is a routine basketball play, and not a spectacular act of crushing violence. But that doesn’t mean it is without any risk at all. That area under the basket is crowded — overcrowded, actually — with photographers and all sorts of other obstacles over which players can trip. It’s probably not a place where guys want to be shoved or forced off-balance, particularly when the game is decided and they’ve let their guard down.

Griffin was not wrong here — it’s hard to be wrong for giving an honest effort. But I get where Odom is coming from.