So the NBA has another black eye.
To go along with its puffy face, swollen lip, cauliflower ear and missing tooth.
Not that you’d see the teeth of anyone from the NBA offices these days. They’re not smiling.
The league was hit with another big punch far beyond what Nuggets and Knicks players exchanged Saturday night in New York.
“It is going to stop in the future,” NBA Commissioner David Stern warned Monday during a conference call in announcing that seven players had been suspended following a fight late in Saturday’s game.
Carmelo Anthony of the Nuggets, the league’s leading scorer, was hit the hardest, getting suspended 15 games. The suspensions will cost players a combined 46 games and more than $1.2 million in lost salaries.
“We’re going to go after the players who aren’t able to stop,” Stern said. “We have set up the goal of eliminating fighting from our game. Clearly, we’re not getting through, or players in certain circumstances just don’t want to be restrained. I would suggest that those players will not have long careers in the NBA.
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“What happened Saturday night will stop because that is not what we’re about.”
Of course, following the ugly brawl in Auburn Hills, Mich., two years ago and a shooting incident outside a strip bar in Indianapolis involving several Pacers 2 1/2 months ago, too much of the public may think otherwise despite this truly being the exception.
For the Bulls–yes, there’s always the “How does it affect me?” view–the continued breakdown of the Knicks could mean a further collapse and more value for the Knicks’ first-round draft pick, which the Bulls can exchange for theirs. This also raises issues about the possible pending trade of Allen Iverson, whom many believed was going to the Nuggets.
With Anthony now out until late January, assuming an appeal doesn’t shorten his sentence, the Nuggets’ season could be lost and they could miss the playoffs. Their second-leading scorer, J.R. Smith, was suspended for 10 games.
It might not even make sense for an Iverson deal, given the chaos surrounding the Nuggets with coach George Karl on Monday accusing Knicks coach Isiah Thomas of “premeditation” in the brawl and calling him unprintable names.
Karl’s position with the franchise also could be endangered, given that he appeared to be unilaterally acting out his petty feud with Thomas at the organization’s expense by playing his regulars late in a one-sided game, clearly, it seemed, to embarrass Thomas at home.
Plus, it appears to put division rival Minnesota in better position to acquire Iverson and perhaps move past Denver.
Stern said he would deal with Karl’s outbursts. Karl denied he was showing up Thomas for firing friend Larry Brown and said he was concerned about losing the game despite double-digit margins throughout the fourth quarter as his players were engaging in acrobatic dunks while the Knicks mostly played reserves.
In the penalties handed out by Stern, the Knicks and Nuggets organizations were each fined $500,000. Stern said teams would be held individually and financially responsible for the actions of their players. In other words: Take a chance on a thug and you’ll pay too.
“If you continue to employ employees who engage in these actions, your organization is going to have to pay a price,” Stern said.
Among players, Anthony’s suspension was the harshest for his sucker punch of Knicks rookie Mardy Collins, who set off the contretemps with a hard foul on Smith. It’s potentially disastrous for Anthony, who appeared to have rehabilitated his stained image with a solid summer with USA Basketball and even was a league MVP candidate. Previously linked to a video associated with drug dealers and violence, Anthony falls back among the league hooligans.
Nuggets forward Nene got one game for leaving the bench. Knicks guard Nate Robinson, in the middle of much of the fighting and known for radical behavior, received 10 games, Collins got six, Knicks forward Jared Jeffries four just after he finally returned from injury and Jerome James one.
The fight spilling into the stands between Robinson and Smith resulted in their big suspensions as the league is most sensitive to fans being involved after the Detroit incident. Anthony returning to sucker-punch Collins after the fight appeared to be breaking up apparently resulted in his harsh penalty. Anthony, who offered a written apology through the Nuggets before the suspensions were announced, can seek arbitration since the penalty is for more than 12 games.
Indiana’s Jermaine O’Neal, after the Auburn Hills brawl, appealed and had his penalty reduced from 25 to 15 games, though Stern said he is confident Anthony’s suspension would be upheld.
NBA players union director Billy Hunter said he would talk to Anthony and his agent Tuesday before deciding whether to pursue an appeal, and he opined that 15 games seemed harsh.
It’s likely the league was most angry with Anthony for inviting him to play with USA Basketball last summer, helping him earn good publicity and endorsement money, then seeing him act like a hoodlum during a game.
The fight began with 1 minute 15 seconds remaining in the Nuggets’ 123-100 win. Collins grabbed Smith around the neck on a breakaway, and the two yelled at one another before Robinson jumped in. Anthony pushed Robinson and he and Smith stumbled into the stands, and then as referees and security seemed to have it calmed, Anthony punched Collins. Jeffries ran at Anthony and had to be restrained.
The NBA warned players after the Pacers-Pistons incident that anything similar wouldn’t be tolerated, and Stern clearly was frustrated this occurred again, though it was not quite as bad. But it made for regular highlight-show viewing.
The NBA’s various subsequent regulations on dress and behavior stemmed from the Auburn Hills melee and it seemed clear Stern was setting the stage for lifetime suspensions in subsequent actions.
Stern said the league could find no evidence of Thomas’ involvement–he allegedly warned Anthony before the fight not to go to the basket–angrily disputed by Karl.
Hard fouls and so-called “no-layup” rules by coaches are common and tolerated in the NBA. After Kobe Bryant scored 30 points in a quarter against his team earlier this season, Jazz coach Jerry Sloan remarked it would have been harder to do from his back. Pat Riley’s teams, especially in New York, have long delivered much harder fouls, with current Bull P.J. Brown one of the principals in the biggest of the brawls in the 1997 playoffs.
Thomas denied he threatened Nuggets players, noting, “I just said to those guys that this isn’t the way that you should act, this isn’t the way that you should be. You shouldn’t be rubbing it in.” Thomas added he thought Karl “put his players in a very bad position.”
Who cares if Thomas and Karl are enemies? The players will return in a few weeks to a month and continue collecting millions of dollars. And the NBA will tell fans to come pay an average of maybe $100 a seat to come watch them. That’s truly the fallout from this latest explosion.
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