NBA Draft

Goddamn, this is one wacky game show.

I missed the draft. But considering all the trades that went down, it makes just as much sense to sift through the leaves instead of taking Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. Then again, everyone loves Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. (Two... two Mallrats jokes! Ah ah ah!)

So, thought I'd have a quick, half-assed looksy at some winners and losers, taking trades into account as best I can:

WINNERS

TRAIL BLAZERS
This roster is absolutely TERRIFYING right now from a youth and potential perspective. Roy, Aldridge, Webster, Oden, Outlaw and Frye are all going to demand your attention in some way. Now they've added a stud point guard prospect to hold it all together. And it's not like the Blazers have a lot of recent busts. This team is going somewhere big.

Their GM, Kevin Pritchard, is doing as good a job of NBA management as I've ever seen. They're doing with their youth what the Celtics were supposed to do with all of theirs... i.e., win with it, not trade it all away for 30-somethings... piles of youngsters instead of piles of money. There's something to be said for the organic approach. Huge, HUGE props to Pritchard for doing it the right way. (So far.)

TIMBERWOLVES
Basketball is relevant again in Minnesota. O.J. Mayo kind of addressed a need, but they needed depth more than talent. When you can get the guy you're after (Kevin Love), AND pick up a legitimate perimeter scorer in Mike Miller, AND dump both Marko Jaric and Antoine Walker... you do it. This team might actually be free of their post-KG misery.

PACERS
When I saw Jerryd Bayless had fallen to them at #11, I assumed they'd won the draft. Turning him into two valuable players in Jarrett Jack and Brandon Rush was just as huge a move. Of course, they also drafted Dr. Hibbert, which seems to be the comedy moment of the draft. (I would have shit a gold brick if they'd drafted both Dr. Hibbert and Superintendent Chalmers.)

CLIPPERS
They were supposed to trade up to #4. But the Sonics surprised everyone by taking Westbrook, which in turn led the Clippers' guy (Eric Gordon) into their hands. Well-played. Now there's no pressure on Shaun Livingston to regain his form right away. Unless Eric Gordon pulls a Khalid El-Amin and gets season tickets to the In 'N Out Burger...

NETS
Wow. Douglas-Roberts at #40 is a second-round wet dream. Ryan Anderson and Brook Lopez are front-court depth at worst, which won't hurt. And they ditched the monstrously overrated and replaceable Richard Jefferson. If they can do something about the cancerous Vince Carter, they might just have a real team again...

RAPTORS
Simply having Jose Calderon on the floor 40 minutes a night and letting Jermaine O'Neal distract a defender or two from Chris Boshgives them more value than T.J. Ford and the #17 had. Well done.

RUSSELL WESTBROOK
This incomplete motherfucker owes Rajon Rondo half his salary for the next three years.

LOSERS

KNICKS
Lehr covers this angle about as well as possible from the fan perspective. And I love a good draft-day boo as much as anyone. But these things can just as easily become infamous as expressive.

In this case, there are several things missing from the equation:

1) They're booing the fact that Walsh and D'Antoni passed on the fourth PG on the board in a draft with only two great point guards (Rose, Mayo), neither of whom were available to New York. The Westbrook/Bayless/Augustin/Gordon group could have gone in any random order from 3 to 6... and in many ways, they did. We're booing people who don't settle for the bronze now? No wonder we lose the Olympics every year.

2) The Knicks need EVERYTHING. No team in the draft was in "best player available" mode more than New York.

3) Just because Knick fans boo doesn't mean they made the wrong move (see Balkman, Renaldo and Frye, Channing)

4) Name ONE person whose hands you'd rather have Gallinari in than Mike D'Antoni. If this guy's got it, Euro expert D'Antoni will get it. Worst case, they're probably getting Boris Diaw, whom one must admit is an awfully nifty player.

But boo them anyway. Fuck 'em. Makes for great TV!

GRIZZLIES
That they're losers, despite landing O.J. Mayo and dumping Brian Cardinal, is a testament to how shoddily their roster is built right now. Four point guards, and no forwards of note (for the right reason) besides Rudy Gay. They're like the bizarro Hawks, except that the Memph also have zero leadership. Their current veteran leadership? Antoine Walker. This is not how one teaches O.J. to pass the rock.

Also, they missed out on a big opportunity, according to the Sports Guy:

5:23: Just took a quick look through reader e-mails from the past hour and everyone seems to agree: We're all excited for the Gay-Love Era in Memphis.

It's official: worse than the Pau Gasol trade.

BOBCATS
What the hell are these guys thinking? Augustin?!? And a project at center? We know how well Larry Brown works with projects. What a nightmare. Given that Michael Jordan's in charge, this doesn't surprise me in the least.

BUCKS
Richard Jefferson? Are you guys even trying anymore?!? Not that Simmons/Jianlian is a king's ransom or anything, but christ. And the guy from West Virginia? You suck. Revive the "Simmons for GM" cries.

CHRIS DOUGLAS-ROBERTS
Is this the Five O'Clock Free 2-Guard Giveaway?

SONICS
Because fuck 'em, that's why.

STEPHEN A. SMITH
This, of course, is the best thing about any NBA draft:



QUITE FRANKLY, EVERYTHING I SAY IS IMPORTANT!!!

Words (Briefly) Escape Me: Bruce Bowen Steps On Chris Paul's Junk

The NBA... where getting stomped in the Timbits happens!



The tone of reaction from folks who linked this video, appropriately, has not been outrage. It's been acceptance. The world apparently accepts that this is okay, and holds Bowen's behavior up, weakly, for ridicule.

There's been talk of late that David Stern's biggest failure as commissioner is what's happening in Seattle. Hard to argue against that choice based on the gravity of the end result. But at least that makes SENSE. Stern is employed ownership, and the Sonics situation, awful as it is, is nevertheless understandable based on Stern's job responsibilities. Wrong? Of course. Out of bounds? Not at all.

The classically dictatorial Stern's failure to discipline Bowen and curb his behavior, however... that is beyond comprehension for me. Stern is the biggest star-fucker of any sports commissioner in American history. Why does he allow his precioussssss superstars to be put at risk like this?

Back in the playoffs last year, I advocated banning Bruce Bowen for the balance of the playoffs, based not on the Game 4 incident in isolation but rather on Game 4 in the context of his body of work. I stand by that. I honestly believe that Bruce Bowen has accrued, at this point in his career, at least 30-40 regular season games' worth of unallocated suspensions. I also believe it would be justifiable, in the eyes of an omniscient and omnipotent God, to suspend Bowen for half of a regular season without pay.

In fact, how about this. Bowen just kicked a New Orleans Hornet in the beanbag. Bowen also seems to like being the face and voice of that unintentionally hilarious NBA Cares commercial. (The commercial wherein, miraculously, he resists the urge to kick those kids in their Achilles tendons while they're distracted by the story he's reading.) So why not have Mr. Charitable Contributions spend half a season rebuilding the Ninth Ward? Suspend him without pay, but then take the suspended salary away from the Spurs and allocate it to Habitat for Humanity. (The Spurs created this monster, so why let them keep the spoils?) That way any accusations made towards the controversial punishment will be shielded by 9/11-esque Katrina allusions! Gee, you know it's not fair, but I'd hate to take away from the rebuilding effort in New Orleans... there's so much left to be done... etc. etc.

A guy can dream, can't he? I put it to you that if the NBA really cared, they'd do exactly what I say.

NBA Moratorium: Fully Justified

I didn't say anything about this yesterday, but MJD's flawless take on the situation got me fired up.  Release the Crazy Jeff tag!

I tuned in for just a minute or two of the end of Game 4 in Utah... just long enough to catch the unconscionable flop by Manu Ginobili that led to the first of Derek Fisher's two technicals.

At that moment, I knew that my decision to abandon the NBA playoffs was correct.

When I say that the NBA is dead... that its legitimacy is fast plummeting towards the depths occupied by boxing, wrestling, and international soccer... and that David Stern needs to start handing out Ron Artest suspensions for generally unsportsmanlike play (not just isolated incidents, but for a player's body of work)... Ginobili's acting performance is exactly what I'm talking about.

Every bonehead who talks about what a fierce competitor Ginobili is, what a tough guy he is, should be forced to watch that shameless, gutless flop on a loop for an hour.  There's competitiveness, and there's sportsmanship.  Nobody can question Ginobili's competitiveness, but there isn't a drop of sportsmanship in his game.  Not one.  If you respect that piece of shit, even a little bit, you're a real sap, because he sure doesn't respect you very much.

It's well beyond Code Red time for Ginobili.  If it were 1984, that androgynous bald fuck would've gotten his teeth smashed in.  Larry Bird would have done it himself.  Of course, Ginobili would know better than pull that crap on the Celtics or Lakers, because those teams would fight back!

But we all know what would happen if Derek Fisher had delivered the curb-stomping that Ginobili so desperately deserves.  Long suspension for Fisher, nominal fine for Ginobili, Ginobili wins.

And that's not going to change.  Neither the NBA nor its players will fight back, because there's no money in it.  The players keep looking to the league to do something, since vigilantism incurs all kinds of fines and suspensions.  The league, meanwhile, knows that neither the outcome of past games nor income from future games will be affected by the kind of retroactive action I'm calling for.  Improving the quality of the on-court product doesn't affect the TV contract, the attendance figures, the merchandising, the endorsements, or anything else.  Why would they change anything?

And that's how the NBA became a joke.  They don't care, so why should I?

The Utah crowd spent the last four minutes of the game pelting the court (read: the Spurs and referees) with garbage.  I wish I could have joined them.

The Aftermath

Sigh.

I spent the whole game excited. My behavior was about identical to my behavior during Pats-Colts in January... jumping around the house, screaming at every success, talking to the Suns through my television. Usually when I'm up late watching sports, I'm acutely aware of the time; last night, I look up and all of a sudden it's 1 AM. I was riding on the adrenaline highway, with no off-ramp in sight.

And then Manu woke up. That rotten bastard. He sure can play the backet ball. Ruined my night morning.

I gotta say, though, that my main reaction to the Spurs' comeback wasn't "that's bullshit!" Sure, given the suspensions, the result is even more bullshit than ever. But within the confines of the game, the only bullshit was the shameless favoritism towards Phoenix. For San Antonio to still come out on top was a mammoth achievement. I can concede a shred or two of respect.

But still not enough to remove the asterisk I've applied. And definitely not enough to give them credit for the win. That credit goes to one man, and one man alone: David Stern. Happy birthday, asshole.

If there's a silver lining to be found, it's that Der Fuhrer is going to get destroyed for this. Tonight's secret ingredient is... CROW!!! He has had it coming for a long, long time. It couldn't be any more deserved, couldn't happen to a more pigheaded, stubborn, condescending jerk.

Anyway, let's consider what we learned yesterday, starting with the bad news:

BAD NEWS

1) Phoenix is fucked. Good did not win out over evil. D'oh.

2) Marv Albert embarrassed himself by suggesting that not enforcing the bench rule would have been seen as bending to Amare's "marquee status." Oh please. I think it's been established pretty clearly that very few people would think that. Besides, if the NBA is so frightened of bailing out their starts, what was Duncan doing in the building last night? Oh, right, that other thing wasn't an altercation. I forgot.

3) We are at risk of suffering through the occassional "well, you can't blame the suspensions anymore, because the Suns had a chance to win" argument from the Retardosphere. The exact opposite is true. They lost by three points. They got killed on the boards. Two put-packs off of offensive rebounds wins that game. Anyone else think just ten minutes of Amare's time would have made the difference?

GOOD NEWS

1) It was an exciting game. At least America wasn't denied that.

2) To reiterate, the league got one thing right: Phoenix got ALL the calls. Every single one. As they deserve, and will continue to deserve through the balance of the series. Given last night's outcome, it's the least the NBA can do. And it's the only option left on the table if the league wants to save face.

3) In the last couple minutes, Raja Bell flopped, shamelessly, in Manu Ginobili's face. And got the call. That, my friends, was textbook poetic justice. Absolutely classic. It may not rank as highly as "Valeri Kamensky sucker-punches Ulf Samuelsson in the chops" on the Poetic Justice Scale, but I'll take it.

4) Thanks to the loss, I get to keep hating on that Nazi cocksucker! Hooray! Hit the gas, Commish!

5) If the Suns end up losing, the pressure on the NBA to "do something" about it will be off the charts. Given that what happened is basically a microcosm of everything that's wrong with the league culture right now, and that an attitude adjustment has been long overdue, maybe some good will come out of it after all. Fingers crossed...

OK, So I Lied

I know, I know, I didn't keep my promise. But so much cool shit happened today! In 24 hours, the sports world's wheels flew off. They flew right the fuck off. Like when an Olympic luge participant farts in the wrong direction and the sled flies out from under him and shoots him 50 feet in the air. You know?

Seriously though, the NBA is just getting SMOTHERED. You couldn't script a bigger PR disaster. You can feel legitimate rage in otherwise sensible media types. For example, anyone read that Steve Kerr link in the comments of my first post on the matter? He sounded rather critical, didn't he? But that's not him. He's a "team X has to do this, they're getting the ball to player Y" type guy. And yet he took the time to add a touch of sarcasm into his otherwise milquetoast column. That's what I'm talking about. Even the vanilla-faces are bloviating. It's uplifting.

The highlights:

* Kaufman summed up absolutely everything. Everything. No other reasonable thoughts on this topic have occurred to anyone, anywhere. Bravo.

* Simmons, meanwhile, wrote his best column in years. THIS is the Sports Guy who forced his way into ESPN. Of all the times I've read him and thought to myself, "he summed up exactly how I feel," this one beats them all. Even the famous Roger Clemens column isn't as 100%-on-the-money as this one.

* Most stunning of all? SPORTSCENTER ANCHORS ACTUALLY CRITICIZED THE NBA!!! Brian Kenny hated on the ruling! I heard him do it! "Talk about rules that need to be changed," he said. OK, fine, so it was in reference to soccer overtime in the UEFA Cup, but it was obviously a jab at the leaving-the-bench thing! Besides, even a snide aside out of context is WAY off the reservation by ESPN standards. Getting an ill word of any kind out of a SC anchor in 2007 is like getting Jeffrey Dahmer to eat and rape, like, ten guys. (Actually, that wouldn't be so hard. But you get the idea.)

The point is that this is officially a major, major disaster. It's a referendum on the NBA. The vote is overwhelmingly negative.

And it's awesome. Invigorating, even.

I can't wait another two hours.

Don't Read This, You Know What It Contains

I'm sorry.  I can't keep thinking about the suspensions and repeatedly pissing myself off all day long.  I have to stop.  I promise I won't say another word about any of it until after Game 5.

After this.

* If you hadn't figured it out by now, I am officially protesting the NBA playoffs.  It's one thing to pull crap like this, or the Artest fight, in the regular season.  It's another thing to punish players who actually fought.  The suspended players did not fight.

Should the Spurs win, it shall not go in my personal record book.  Should they so much as advance to the Finals, I shall declare the Eastern Conference winner to be NBA champions on this blog.  (Believe me, if I'm offering to sing the praises of the friggin Pistons, you know I mean business.)

* This is the worst job of reacting to in-game violence since the Ron Artest fight.

* What lesson have the Suns, and for that matter basketball fans, learned here?  Cheating is not only OK, but it pays.  Dirty players win.  And it's not just an unwritten rule anymore... it's league-sanctioned.  Bra-vo, NBA.

* TrueHoop is once again a must-read.  While I agree that the logic behind Stu Jackson's recommendation is understandable, and that he did not act beyond his bounds, I strongly disagree that either of those things is so much as relevant to the discussion, let alone a viable thesis.  The issue is larger than a single rule.

* In questioning my rant from yesterday, Kelvin pointed out that gamesmanship and "dirty tricks" are an unavoidable consequence of championship play, citing the Marco Materazzi bullshit from the World Cup final and all that.  He also said that punishing folks after the fact wouldn't change the outcome of the game they affected with said gamesmanship.  One cannot entirely legislate that sort of thing out of sports, and attempting to do so opens up a gigantic can of worms.  Those are fair points.

However, actively rewarding the dirty tricksters... not just merely accepting referee ignorance, but going back, after the fact, and applying further punishment to the victims in cold blood, when alternate courses of action are available... is way over the line.  And obviously over the line, at that... unless you work for the NBA, that is. 

* Along those lines, interesting point at the end of the TrueHoop piece: given the on-court wanderings of Tim Duncan and Bruce Bowen in the second quarter, and given Stu Jackson's inevitable (cowardly) decision, James Jones should have clocked Francisco Elson.  Seriously.  If he'd done that, then by rule Jackson would have been required to suspend Duncan and Bowen.  And that, my friends, is why you don't just make up draconian rules and hide behind them.  Your life as a decision-maker becomes easier to manage in the short-term, but you end up with unintended long-term consequences worse than what you were trying to avoid in the first place.

* Despite understanding Jackson's treatment of the Jones/Elson moment, I disagree that it was the correct application of the rule.

The rule is you can't leave the bench during an altercation.  If the rule isn't enforced for all cases regardless, then there's room for discretion.

Duncan and Bowen left the bench in response to a hard foul.  It's on tape.  If you're enforcing the rule in all cases, then they gotta go too.  But Jackson determined that the altercation was not sufficiently violent for the bench rule to kick in.  In other words, he used his what?  His discretion.

If there's room for discretion there, then there is room for discretion concerning the complete lack of justification for suspending Amare Stoudemire and Boris Diaw.

This result is, therefore, a selective punishment of Stoudemire and Diaw.

* On a brighter note, I have decided, just now, to watch the hell out of Game 5, Pacific Standard Time be damned.  And I'm going to make an embarrassing, embarrassing scene in my apartment, too.  I'm now looking forward to it.  This is gonna be great.

David Stern, You Nazi Bastard

Hey, it's time for everybody's favorite game show, "Nazi NBA Commissioner Gets Off On Treating Grown Black Men Like They're His Fucking Kids Or Something Else Equally Demeaning!"  Today's contestants are Amare Stoudemire, Boris Diaw, and Robert Horry:

"This is a very unfortunate circumstance," Jackson said during a conference call. "No one here at the league office wants to suspend players any game, much less a pivotal game in the second round of a playoff series. But the rule, however, is the rule, and we intend to apply it consistently."

Absolutely!  THAT'S the way to apply rules!  I've always felt that way.  Because my name is Cardinal Richelieu, and when I'm not blogging about the NBA, I like to torture heretics by ripping the flesh from their underarm areas. ^_^

Paris Hilton will go to seminary before the NBA applies a single rule properly at any level of its operations.  A league with bigger officiating problems than professional wrestling is suddenly preoccupied with consistency?  Laughable.  I laugh in the face of that statement.

"I feel it's terribly wrong," Suns owner Robert Sarver said. "I feel we've been unjustly penalized for the fact that we played a clean, hard game. I feel if any team should have been penalized in this series, it should be the Spurs and it shouldn't be us. I feel like I've just been punched in the gut."

Usually I'd point to the fact that the guy's an owner and rule his opinion out due to partisanship.  Except he's COMPLETELY FUCKING CORRECT.  So I won't.

Asked if he thought it was a fair decision, Jackson said, "It's not a matter of fairness, it's a matter of correctness, and this is the right decision at this point in time."  Jackson said it was clear that Stoudemire and Diaw had violated the rule, saying they were "20 to 25 feet" from their seats.

Yes, because the commissioner's office is completely powerless!  Gosh, I'd hate to be completely in charge of something... I'd just have my hands tied with red tape all the time.  If only he were some kind of dictator-for-life type thing.  Or wait, what's the word... FUHRER!  That's the one.

Interesting how the commissioner didn't want to play God by violating the rules, but did want to play God by yanking two victims from Game 5, more than likely costing Phoenix the series.  Then again, those two guys really should have maintained their composure.  What a couple of fuckin' morons they are for costing their teammates the game.  Totally their fault.

Let me put it this way.  I hope David Stern spends the last 20 years of his life in a coma.  I hope that the entirety of his coma is excruciatingly painful and horrifying, in a way that he is incapable of expressing physically.  And I hope the hospital would have gladly pulled the plug, giving him a dignified, human death... had he submitted the proper paperwork authorizing such a termination.  No paperwork = no euthanasia.  Unfortunate, but the rule, however, is the rule.  It's not about fairness... it's about correctness.

The new NBA was fun while it lasted.  This whole sport is hopeless.  I'm going back to hockey.

The NBA: It's Crock-Of-Shit-Tastic!

Henry Abbott summed up my feelings better than I can.  Must-read link.  But I'll do it anyway.

Thrilled as I am that the Suns fought back against the Spurs to win Game 4, I'm even more thrilled that they fought back against the Spurs literally.  This may be a game or two late, but I'm just about done respecting San Antonio on any level.  My tolerance of Bruce Bowen has shot way past rock bottom, obviously, but the crap that Robert Horry pulled on Steve Nash is the just last nail in the coffin.  One guy called it "chickenshit," which I think is the perfect word for it.  People think they're tough or gritty or whatever, but I think they're the exact opposite: a bunch of gutless cowards.

It makes me wonder... why do we refuse to punish people for cheating on the court the same way we do when they cheat off the court?  Look at how steroid-based cheating is a goddamn federal case, while blatant, documented, VISUAL evidence of cheating is "the mark of a champion" or something.  That's some ol' bullshit.  If we're taking away Barry Bonds's records for steroid-based cheating, and taking away Final Four appearances for finance-based cheating, why do we not take away championships for just plain-old cheating?

I recognize that putting asterisks next to teams' titles for general cheating opens up a can of worms.  Very few championship teams won without gamesmanship on some level.  As a Patriots fan, I know all about the bargain with the devil.  But I'm talking about punishing the poster children.  The very worst of the very worst.  Bonds is the poster child for steroids, and has thus been made an example.  San Antonio is the poster child for cheating on defense and intentionally trying to injure players.  Why can we not make them an example?  I think there's a pretty goddamn fabulous case to be made.

Dreams aside, let's return to the real focus of my bile: Bruce Bowen.  How much more of his dirty, evil, talentless, and above all else unpunished shit does America have to endure before someone DOES something about it?

The guy is a joke.  He's not talented enough to compete, so he cheats.  He is the physical embodiment of "getting away with it."  He's O.J, he's Ray Lewis, he's Kobe Bryant, but only on the court.  Within the context of a basketball game, he represents everything that we teach our children to not be.  There should be no place for a despicable, immoral person like him in sports.

But he'll never be punished properly.  Never.  The NBA has set up a lovely Catch-22: they won't punish the perpetrators, but they will gladly punish the vigilantes.

1) The NBA refuses to suspend the perpetrators of cheating and intentionally dirty play.
If someone gets caught trying to rob a bank, or blow up an airplane, do the police let him go?  No.  That guy's in jail for a long, long time.

If Bruce Bowen gets caught trying to tear Amare Stoudemire's Achilles tendon, does the NBA let him go?  Yes.  No foul, no fine, no suspension.  I guess he didn't do anything wrong!

I mean, it's not like there's no evidence.  There's video of the play.  The intent is there.  He did it.  How can that go completely unpunished?!?

Here's what kills me...

David Stern takes pleasure in handing out arbitrary, fascist suspensions.  It's what gets him up in the morning.  Just ask Jermaine O'Neal.  Hell, ask Kobe Bryant.  And when Stern does drop the hammer, he's bulletproof.  Appeal denied!!!

So if David Stern were to kick Bowen out for the rest of the playoffs, for conduct unbecoming of an adult let alone an NBA player, there ain't a goddamn thing anyone could do about it.

Who's gonna beat the commissioner?  The Spurs?  They made Bowen what he is, so they ought to be made to feel some pain.  The players' union?  They're the Washington Generals to Der Fuhrer's Harlem Globetrotters.  They're puppets.  Bowen's agent?  Ha!  Not likely.  Stern could do this.  He could send a message.  He could put the fear of an arbitrary, crazy God in the hearts of anyone who might fit the description of a dirty player.  But he doesn't.

Why?  Because he's convinced that dirty play on the court does not adversely affect the league's image.  Bowen's transgressions are limited to the basketball court.  He's not waving a gun outside a nightclub.  He's not violating the league's dress code.  He's not talking back to referees.  So the league doesn't care.  (Way to have your priorities straight.  Trying to paralyze someone on purpose is okay, as long as you wear a suit and shut up.)

Therefore, NBA referees and league officials will allow Bowen to continue his path of destruction until a superstar like LeBron or D-Wade gets seriously, seriously hurt by this guy.  Of course, then it'll be too late.

This all seems to rule out the NBA governing itself, which leaves it up to the players themselves.  However:

2) The NBA is more likely to punish the response to a cheap shot than the cheap shot itself.
Not only has the league failed to address their own problem, but they've set up rules such that players who so much as think about addressing the problem themselves get automatic suspensions.  The NBA has set precedents for fighting so severe that the consequences are too dire to allow for proper retribution.  We're not going to do anything about it... but don't you be a vigilante, either.

For example, watch what happens today in the aftermath of the fight.  Amare Stoudemire will draw a suspension for the biggest game of his life, because he stood up and took exception to yet another cheap-shot from the Spurs.  Didn't throw a punch, didn't hurt anyone.  He just had a reaction.  How much more of this crap can they be expected to take without doing anything about it?

And why do players continue to have that reaction, despite the threat of a "leaving the bench" suspension?  Because they have ZERO trust in the refs and the league to handle things themselves.  If just and appropriate punishments were EVER handed out, maybe you'd see players stay right on the bench where they belong.  It's a snap-judgment, an instinctive thing to begin with; the lack of faith in the powers that be exacerbates it.  If your teammate gets elbowed in the chops on purpose, and your choices are "sitting back, knowing nothing will be done" and "I get suspended, but at least I fixed shit," odds are that most people take option #2.

(Somewhat off-topic, but I would like someone to tell me why one's response to cheating is a test of one's cool, but not the act of cheating itself.  Isn't it an implicit admission of inferiority if you resort to illegal play?  A sign of weakness?  If a player better than me is just owning me, and my lack of ability leaves me no choice but to resort to cheap-ass elbowing and oil-checking maneuvers, have I not also lost my cool?  Why does the collective pressure lie on the victim?  Explain THAT.)

The reason this stuff drives me so nuts is that the "new NBA" is so much better than the Rileyball era... but the league's refusal to discourage thug-ball will kill that trend before it even gets rolling.  We desperately need one of these "new/exciting" teams (Mavs, Suns, et al) to win a championship and get it done against the thug-ballers.  But the refs do not (and maybe cannot) prevent thug-ball from being so effective.  Thugs like Bowen have no fear of significant retribution.  They think they won't be punished if they can slip it past the refs.  If dirty players knew that they could dodge a foul from the ref, but not a suspension from the league, watch how quickly they'd start behaving.

If the league continues to sit on its hands, teams will revert right back to Rileyball.  Other than the Van Gundy brothers, nobody wants that.  The NBA could stop it, but they won't.  I wish they would.

Anyway, Game 5 should be a goddamn classic.  Let's hope half the players aren't suspended.