My First Brawl!

Well, kinda. The 2008-2009 NBA season is barely 2 weeks old and we've already had a mini-round of fisticuffs. Well, there weren't any fists involved. More like big men pushing and shoving. A couple of guys hit the ground, a couple of extra guys came off the benches, several players were restrained. Can we call it a melee? Hellz to the nah, it wasn't even that serious. How about I just tell the story...

Wednesday night the Houston Rockets traveled to Arizona to face the Phoenix Suns. All seemed normal until the 3rd quarter when Rafer Alston (BKA Skip to My Lou) caught a stiff shoulder from Matt Barnes. (By the way, I've always thought Barnes was dirty. There's just something about that dude...) Skip got upset came back with a shove rest is, as they say, history. Steve Nash came in and it looked like he was trying to break things up. Tracy McGrady came in shoving, and Shaq wasn't having his perennial All-Star point guard getting treated like a rag doll, so he came in , all 7-1, 360 pounds of him, and shoved McGrady and to the ground. It was pretty funny. Check the video:



Barnes and Alston were ejected, and McGrady, Nash & O'Neal all received techs. A few days after this attempt at an altercation, the NBA levied some fined and handed down some suspensions. Alston and Barnes were suspended for 2 games, while Nash was only suspended for 1 for "escalating the altercation." You gotta love how the league phrases this shit! They hit (or should I say lightly tapped) Shaq and McGrady in their abyss-like pockets fining them $35,000 and $25,000 respectively. Can we say a drop in the Pacific?

This tit-for-tat, 1st grade pushing match was not worthy of any kind of suspension. A fine? Meh, I can live with that, but to suspend guys when no one even got punched, kicked or spit on? I mean come on David Stern!! I understand we don't want another brawl like at The Palace at Auburn Hills, or The Garden, or even like last year's playoff where Steve Nash got mollywhopped and slammed across the floor. But this was nothing like that, thanks in part to all the coached who came through and tried to diffuse the situation, and the players on the bench who recognized that their involvement would only have exacerbated the situation.


Even if I side with the league and agree with the suspensions of Barnes and Alston, Steve Nash should not have been suspended. That little white man is MAD!! As he should be! Over the past few years he's been gettin his ass whooped!! Taking hard fouls, driving to the basket then quickly hitting the parquet. Let's not forget what happened to him in San Antonio last season where he was clotheslined by Robert Horry, and a game or two later force-fed his own bloody nose. Frankly, I wasn't surprised when teammates had to hold his ass back in this game vs. Houston. Damn right he's mad! He's kissing the hardwood like that shit is going outta style!

Agree with the NBA's decision or not, the league is clearly taking a stand early in this season: Act a fool, and pay the price. (I really tried hard to think of something that would rhyme, like Stay in School, or Follow the Rules, but nothing made sense so...) The NBA is image oriented and if you decide to engage in behavior unbecoming of a representative of the Nation Basketball Association Stern is comin for that ass!


**Shout out to all the players who showed restraint and stayed on the bench, and to the coaches for getting the players into their separate corners swiftly. Here we are talking about a fight on the court and I the man most people would assume was involved - didn't even hint at RON ARTEST!! The Rockets were involved in a mini-scuffle and Mr. Artest was chillaxin on the bench keepin his nose, hands, and fists where they belonged - to himself! Shout out to Ronnie!

I love me some Charles!! Barkely that is. He's off the wall, unrepentant, and refreshingly candid. He didn't think this Suns/Rockets shoving match was so serious either.