Ugly Night for the NBA
The brawl in MSG the other night was a sad night for the NBA, as it once again reinforced the image of the NBA as a bunch of thugs. Of course there is fighting in other sports, but the NBA is always going to get more scrutiny because individual players are so visible and the league is attached to hip-hop culture which brings in certain stereotypes. It's sad when the players come off so badly and hurt the league. As to penalties, there's an article here with proposed penalties. They come across as way too lenient across the board. Jared Jeffries in particular deserves more for charging across the court. The one guy who might deserve less than proposed is Isiah Thomas. The Nuggets shouldn't have had their stars in the game at that point, and ordering a player to give a hard foul in response seems to me pretty much fine. He didn't tell anyone to get into a fight or lose their cool. He was just protecting his home court from embarrassment and I don't think he can reasonably be held accountable for "starting" this. The key to it all is of course Carmelo Anthony, who comes out of this looking so unbelievably bad. He throws a punch for almost no reason and then runs away like a coward. It was so pathetic from one of the NBA's marquee stars. I might suspend him 20 games, and certainly no less than 10. You've got to look at actions in the context of which they came about, and he threw the bunch just to do so and it was pathetic.
posted by Todd Martin at 7:28 AM
10 Comments:
Seems like David Stern got it just right.
Well, it looks like they got it right.
and wow, as I post this, I just now see your comment. Yeah, they a good job. I may have pushed for 20 on Melo, but 15 sends a message.
My only gripe is JR Smith is on my fantasy team, and I lose him for 10 games! haha
Here's an interesting tidbit: the Bengals have more arrests over the past year than the whole NBA put together.
I agree with you about Carmelo and everyone else, but I think Isiah absolutely should have been suspended. It is NOT ok to order your players to take someone out on purpose. That wasn't just a regular foul that Collins committed; he practically took Smith's head off. And plus, it was premeditated, since he warned Carmelo about it a minute before it happened. Then, the way Isiah acted after everything happened was an embarassment; he blamed it on the other team!!! Normally, a coach in that situation would apologize to the fans and take responsibility, but not Isiah. There is no responsibility in MSG when it comes to anything, and that's a disgrace.
With the growing popularity of fighting in this country you would think a situation like this wouldn't be that big of a deal.
The most dangerous man in america is the young black male from the "hip hop generation"(the 2006 way referring to young blacks as N******). As american sports reporters and newsmen they will promote boxing, fighting, wrestling, and hockey, all sports with brutal acts of physical violence. But will jump on the chance to bury a league where the stars are not white over one punch? Gimme a break. A big reason why MMA is skyrocketing to the hot topic of the sports world is because it's a action sport where the stars are not predominantly black, making it "more marketable" to the country. Here's a good example, Zinadine Zidane was initially buried for his headbutt in a world cup final game that was pretty much over with. But then he revealed that the opposing player said something about his family. Is Carmelo gonna get a pass if Mardy Collins had said he wanted to fuck his sister? Or his "hip hop generation" fiancee?
Isiah has got to go. He's had to go since his sexual harrassment suit, he threatened players on an opposing team and then put them at a serious injury risk. Isiah ignited this and the "I've seen this hard foul 100 times.." arguemtn is lame, because just because you've seen it before, it doesn't make it right. Or a necessary part of the game. That is a frustration move and cowardly in that you would resort to violence. In all honesty, Isiah and Carmelo committed the same crime. The difference is, Isiahs hands are clean.
One more thing I'd like to add.
What happened saturday night was another sad moment for the history of sports in this country not just the NBA.
The NBA is a world wide phenomenom and while it will never be admitted by anyone in the media, basketball in this country is as competitive and talented as soccer in Europe.
And can we be real? Basketball is one of the few sports of America's own creation. You can call baseball america's pastime, but its a knockoff of Cricket is it not?
I would be willing to bet there is alot more International money flowing into the NBA than there is in any other sport. This is a world news story on millions of tv stations all over. So when the arguement arises, this becomes an American disgrace, the NBA takes a hit, african americans take a hit, hell with david stern runnin' it all I'm sure the Jews take a hit, but when it comes down to it, this is another black eye for the United States.
Thank God I don't have to be PC.
Not sure I even know how to do that.
Tyson, watch it with some of the comments. I'm keeping this up here, but this is a warning in advance that if you go much farther in future posts I may decide to delete them. I didn't even debate it in this case, but a few steps further and I would have.
The always astute Dave Zirin has a good take on the situation here: http://www.edgeofsports.com/2006-12-18-216/index.html
"Basketball is one of the few sports of America's own creation."
Tyson, basketball was invented in CANADA by Dr. James Naismith, maybe you should look it up
Yeah I realized I toe'd the line a little bit but the things that people say about the NBA and it's players just get me so enraged. As far as attacking my credibility by saying basketball was created in Canada...
My boy, basketball was created in Massachusetts. Naismith is a canadian.
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