Now that all the fines and suspensions have been levied I figured I would throw out my opinion as to whether or not in my opinion these suspensions were justified.
Carmelo Anthony, 15 games - Slightly Harsh - A) He was not the one fouled, B) The Scrum had for the most part been died down when he threw a haymaker, C) Said Haymaker landed on the chin, immediately making it worse, D) Superstar Carmelo Scarred the NBA Image more than any other player in the rumble. You can't have a superstar in the NBA doing that, and he deserved a huge suspension. 15 games might be a bit much, especially with Robinson getting 10, but he deserved to get embarrassed for his actions, the Knicks did nothing to start a fight with Carmelo, and he took a cheap shot after it settled down.
JR Smith, 10 Games - Too Harsh - JR Smith say what you will, but Smith was destroyed at the rim and had a right to be ticked off with that transition foul. He didn't throw the first punch he simply confronted Collins, which was proceeded by a shove from Nate Robinson and then a punch thrown in the direction of his face, that's when JR lost his cool and honestly who wouldn't. JR didn't instigate anything, sure he made it worse but to ask someone to keep their cool immediately following a double closeline, a shove, and a punch seems a bit ridiculous.
Nate Robinson, 10 Games - Too Weak - I say Nate Robinson is the biggest culprit in this whole thing, sure the foul was hard, but JR got up and probably just got in Mardy's face and called him a bitch. Robinson incinuated the remainder of the brawl by shoving JR and then throwing a punch in his direction. Only difference between him and Carmelo is that Carmelo's came later and Carmelo landed it. If you're giving Carmelo 15 Nate has to get the same.
Mardy Collins, 6 Games - For a Hard Foul? Weak - Sure the foul was hard, but I've hit my buddies almost as hard in pick up games. In the ensuing fight, he did not throw a punch, a shove, or anything else. Not like it matters that the Knicks are going to lose Mardy, a guy who never plays, for six games, but I can't blame him for the start of the fight.
Jared Jeffries, 4 Games - Stupid - Jeffries was spending the first half of the brawl trying to be a peacemaker, than while holding Collins back watched a punch land on Collins chin, and proceeded to go after Anthony. Basically he did nothing wrong other than chase Anthony after a cheap shot.
Nene & Jerome James, 1 Game - Standing Up - Left the bench got the 1 game suspension, not a big deal.
Isiah Thomas, 0 Games - Ridiculous - He obviously threatened Carmelo with a hard foul, his comments afterwwards were ridiculous. How does he possibly get through this unscathed, shouldn't he be heald responsible for his comments, his teams attitude and behavior.
Knicks & Nuggets, 1/2 Million Each - Odd - So you're going to hold the organizations responsible and fine them a 1/2 million, I have no problem with that, but if that's the case how in the world does Isiah not garner any responsibility? Basically the Nuggets are set to lose much more than a 1/2 million, they're most likely not going to make the playoffs.
In the end it just makes no sense how Isiah gets off scot free. He made ludicrous comments after the game, made a semi threatening comment during the game, and lost control of his whole team. In addition the equal suspension of Nate and JR seem like very poor judgement by the league's offices. Simply put, the Knicks got a favorable spin than the Nuggets from David Stern for a fight they instigated and prolonged.
Carmelo Anthony, 15 games - Slightly Harsh - A) He was not the one fouled, B) The Scrum had for the most part been died down when he threw a haymaker, C) Said Haymaker landed on the chin, immediately making it worse, D) Superstar Carmelo Scarred the NBA Image more than any other player in the rumble. You can't have a superstar in the NBA doing that, and he deserved a huge suspension. 15 games might be a bit much, especially with Robinson getting 10, but he deserved to get embarrassed for his actions, the Knicks did nothing to start a fight with Carmelo, and he took a cheap shot after it settled down.
JR Smith, 10 Games - Too Harsh - JR Smith say what you will, but Smith was destroyed at the rim and had a right to be ticked off with that transition foul. He didn't throw the first punch he simply confronted Collins, which was proceeded by a shove from Nate Robinson and then a punch thrown in the direction of his face, that's when JR lost his cool and honestly who wouldn't. JR didn't instigate anything, sure he made it worse but to ask someone to keep their cool immediately following a double closeline, a shove, and a punch seems a bit ridiculous.Nate Robinson, 10 Games - Too Weak - I say Nate Robinson is the biggest culprit in this whole thing, sure the foul was hard, but JR got up and probably just got in Mardy's face and called him a bitch. Robinson incinuated the remainder of the brawl by shoving JR and then throwing a punch in his direction. Only difference between him and Carmelo is that Carmelo's came later and Carmelo landed it. If you're giving Carmelo 15 Nate has to get the same.
Mardy Collins, 6 Games - For a Hard Foul? Weak - Sure the foul was hard, but I've hit my buddies almost as hard in pick up games. In the ensuing fight, he did not throw a punch, a shove, or anything else. Not like it matters that the Knicks are going to lose Mardy, a guy who never plays, for six games, but I can't blame him for the start of the fight. Jared Jeffries, 4 Games - Stupid - Jeffries was spending the first half of the brawl trying to be a peacemaker, than while holding Collins back watched a punch land on Collins chin, and proceeded to go after Anthony. Basically he did nothing wrong other than chase Anthony after a cheap shot.
Nene & Jerome James, 1 Game - Standing Up - Left the bench got the 1 game suspension, not a big deal.
Isiah Thomas, 0 Games - Ridiculous - He obviously threatened Carmelo with a hard foul, his comments afterwwards were ridiculous. How does he possibly get through this unscathed, shouldn't he be heald responsible for his comments, his teams attitude and behavior.
Knicks & Nuggets, 1/2 Million Each - Odd - So you're going to hold the organizations responsible and fine them a 1/2 million, I have no problem with that, but if that's the case how in the world does Isiah not garner any responsibility? Basically the Nuggets are set to lose much more than a 1/2 million, they're most likely not going to make the playoffs.
In the end it just makes no sense how Isiah gets off scot free. He made ludicrous comments after the game, made a semi threatening comment during the game, and lost control of his whole team. In addition the equal suspension of Nate and JR seem like very poor judgement by the league's offices. Simply put, the Knicks got a favorable spin than the Nuggets from David Stern for a fight they instigated and prolonged.
Comments
Anthony came right in and was shoving several people before Smith tackled Nate. If you missed that, you didn't look at the video very clearly. Anthony was in the middle of it from the start, was just as excited as Nate and was getting his hands on a lot of people. It wasn't just the punch. He was definitely escalating the conflict long before the sucker punch.
Without debating whether Nate threw a punch, Smith took it to the next level by tackling Nate into the first row. And something you obviously missed was that Smith punched Nate after the were being pulled apart. That is pretty clear on the video.
Go to the 3 minute mark. The league obviously saw that.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=8J-I8XFb4vw
The fact is that the worst thing you can do during an altercation in the NBA is throw a punch. And only 2 guys landed close fisted punches to another players head. One was Anthony and the other Smith. Simply put, they are not victims here.
And after Nate threw a punch at JR for no good reason he deserved to be brought down by the guy. I don't have too much of a problem with the Nuggets game lengths, just the Knicks should have been far more severe especially Isiah's joke zero games.