The NBA announced yesterday that it was going to go by the letter of the law and suspend Amare Stoudemire and Boris Diaw for game 5 of the Suns Series versus the Spurs, for getting off of the bench after Horry's flagrant foul. If you watch the video the Suns coaches stopped Amare and Diaw well before they ever came anywhere near the "altercation" as Stu Jackson calls it. How is that not taken into account? Should someone get suspended for starting to swing an elbow at someone and stopping well before they land it? This rule has been absurd since day one. This rule is equivalent to your buddy getting into a fight at the bar started by someone else, and you stand up in your stool and are thrown out of the bar. It makes no sense.
So the NBA is willing to throw away a game in the only important series in the entire NBA playoffs. Does this make any logical business sense? Essentially Kurt Thomas is going to have to play millions of minutes despite him being elderly, and they will need to give Pat Burke minutes or force Marion to cover Duncan. If Duncan doesn't end up with 30+ 15+ in a Spurs W I will be shocked, and all for what. Absolutely nothing.
Hell I don't even agree with Horry getting a two game suspension for what was just a hard foul. But atleast he actually hit someone instead of just standing up. If I was losing game 6 of a playoff series, at the end of the game I would send in my scrubs and have them purposely try to incinuate a brawl (John Chaney style) to get the other teams players to leave the bench. There's no loss in this situation, what would the Suns care if Marcus Banks is suspended for game 7 if they could get Tim Duncan or Ginobli off the bench.
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