Knicks-Nuggets megabrawl??

Now that's quite an edit

 

That's more the message I was trying to get at in my post. I couldn't give two shits if Thomas feels the Nuggets were running up the score; Thomas doesn't even enter the equation for me until his comments after the game. I'm thinking that if I was in the same situation I would have done the same thing Collins did. Call it being a sore loser or whatever, but I don't care how good you are (obviously the Knicks suck) eventually you're going to get your ass kicked and it's not going to be fun. The other team can press til the final buzzer and try oops and dunks too, but don't expect the other team - if they have any pride - to sit there and take it.

My whole point wasn't about sportsmanship, it was about understanding why Collins reacted the way he did. The Nuggets stole the ball and threw it down the court to their highlight reel dunker late in a blowout, and Collins didn't want to get further embarassed. The Nuggets just as easily could have taken possession, walked over half court, run some clock and taken a jump shot, but they decided to rub it in. Not saying they deserved it, but they can't act surprised when somehting like this happens.

 

Just read Selena Roberts' column about this on the wire.

What I wouldn't give to be able to write like that.

 

I already posted that segment of the earlier post.

Once you've progressed to the green Early Reader, you may be able to understand.

 

I read this whole post for one reason -- Starman reax like this.

I was not disappointed.

And Isiah Thomas is a pox on the ass of basketball. Could be the swarmiest, most untrustworthy person I've covered. I have no doubt of his role in this.

That said, leave the suspensions to the players and throw the book at Robinson and Anthony.

 

Sam Mitchell: "You call that a brawl?".

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1166395811180&call_pageid=968332188492

Which brings us to Saturday, when some the grappling nearly spilled into the first row of seats and Anthony unleashed what some reports have referred to as a "haymaker." More accurately, it was an open-handed slap that, though it felled Collins, was made all the less impressive by Anthony's immediate and speedy retreat. That's not to say it was acceptable, only that it was, like almost every other NBA fight, futile, laughable, hardly cathartic — and as threatening to the well-being of the players and the fans as a T-shirt cannon.

"We can't fight," said Mitchell, repeating his thesis. "We can wrestle. But we've got a better chance of scratching each other than fighting each other where we actually (land) a punch. ... So why is it such a black eye when these guys lose their temper?"

 

Interesting. ... But to say that fight wasn't threatening to the well-being of those fans in the first couple rows is a little irresponsible, don't you think?

I agree, those 10 guys can probably take the wrestling/slapping that occurred. But 250-pound guys falling/getting tackled onto fans is unacceptable, and why this "fighting" can't be tolerated.

 

The NBA has always had fights but some how this one seems worse. Senator Bradley had some famous battles with Don Nelson and Jack Marin and there was not much hand wringing after.

Found an interesting article in Time archives:

From the Magazine | Sport
For Pride and Profit
SUBSCRIBE TO TIMEPRINTE-MAILMORE BY AUTHOR
Posted Monday, May 14, 1973


Though a newcomer to the pros, New York Knick Guard Dean Meminger has a veteran's grasp of what the annual free-for-all called the National Basketball Association play-offs is all about. He proved it in last week's showdown game with the Boston Celtics, when a flash fight between Knick Bill Bradley and Celtic Don Nelson threatened to erupt into a bench-clearing slugfest. Meminger, the smallest man on the floor, quickly stepped in front of Boston's Dave Cowens, the 6-ft. 9-in. center with flaming red hair and a temper to match, and said: "Cool it. Let's not anybody get hurt or jeopardize his career. We're playing for a lot of money."

This spring the quest for the $100,000 jackpot that will go to the championship team has caused more than the usual amount of erratic behavior. The Los Angeles Lakers, listless and barely able to survive their first-round clash with the bruising Chicago Bulls, came roaring back to polish off the Golden State Warriors in five games. The Knicks, helped by an injury that all but immobilized Celtic Star John Havlicek, ran up a commanding lead of three games to one, then lost two in a row. With that the Celtics did something they had never done before in ten previous play-off series that went to the seventh and deciding game: they lost. In the end, those two old money teams, the Knicks and the Lakers, squared off in the finals.

 

The Bullets-Knicks of the late '60s and early '70s produced some of the toughest matchups in the history of the game -- Unseld-Reed, Johnson-DeBusschere, Bradley-Marin. It seemed like punches were thrown every game.

 

Good Times, Good Times

 

In addition to his punk behavior a few seconds later, I love how Melo pulled Frye away from the initial fight. Frye slips when Melo pulls him down by his jersey from behind and then Melo stands over Frye, until Karl gets him to move away. Real tough guy.