Here is my take on the melee Saturday at Madison Square Garden:

Stuff happens!

Carmelo Anthony was out of order, but he was stepping up for J.R. Smith. The Knicks are what Isiah Thomas made them to be, which are names with no substance. Nate Robinson was wrong in his actions, but right with his intentions. George Karl is a person I know well. After watching him coach the Bucks for five years, I feel qualified to say this: He was sticking it to Isiah, because George is vindictive and can be spiteful (ask Ray Allen and others).

If you put all these combustible elements together and spark it with physical actions and emotions of getting your butt handed to you; BOOM! Now, lets not overreact to the melee. Rather, lets respond in a proactive way and remember life is about a lot of things, including conflict.

Spitting on someone is the nastiest, most disrespectful, demeaning act one can do to another person. That being said, Terrell Owens should have been fined the way he was, even though there are nasty actions all over the football field. I know that in the world of sports there are just different rules, policies and justice in terms of what happens between the lines. That's, cool but some things in life cross over. Spitting is one of those things. Nothing good can come from this nasty act.

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Recent Talkbacks ...

Posted by uwwcommuter on Dec. 21, 2006 at 2:17 p.m. (report)

Continued... On the other hand the NBA has athletes. True athletes who can run, jump, shoot, and fight. Most of the NBA players were probably in fights in thier younger days and could probably hit and take hits fairly well. With this being said, fights in the NBA could get out of hand easily, which is why they try to curtail fights, especailly of the Denver-Knicks fight magnitude. This has nothing to do with a "black-man's" sport being put back into check. It does have to do with people sitting feet sometimes barely even feet from the floor. To have a fight going on would not only be bad for "business" but would be unsafe. All that would have had to happen is one of the players swing and hit a fan and the NBA is looking at a large law suit.

Posted by uwwcommuter on Dec. 21, 2006 at 2:11 p.m. (report)

Comparing the NBA to the NHL or MLB what a joke, and speaking of joke, read this article again, has this writer heard of a "transition" between topics...apparently not. The NHL is a contact sport, the fans that the NHL brings in are rowdy fans who jump around, bang on the glass and love to see fights. It has and always will be part of the NHL, or at least if the NHL wants to stay profitable. The MLB does have their fare share of "fights." Most of them are one on one fights thats get broken up faster than the 180 pound pitcher can fall to the ground. When a fight does get "out of control" there are suspensions handed out and fines just like the NBA.

Posted by Jon D. on Dec. 21, 2006 at 1:21 p.m. (report)

Why do these suspensions have to be about racism? Do you want to know the real reason the Knick-Nugget brawl got so much pub? Here's why: 1.) It took place in NEW YORK. Everything is big time news when it happens in New York. If this was the Bucks and Nuggets, the story disappears in a day or two. 2.) The fight poured over into the crowd. That will always bring suspensions if you put your customer at risk. How quickly we forget the outrage over the Dodger bullpen going into the stands at Wrigley Field a few years ago. 3.) Hockey has in game penalties in effect, only allows two "goons" to duke it out at a time. If an act is deemed extreme, charges have been brought in the past. 4.) It happened before with the Pistons and Pacers. If the same types of supensions were not meted out, the league would lose all credibilty. I'm sick of this blanket racism chargealways being thown out. It cheapens the term and makes people numb to actual racism.

Posted by Buddy Lee on Dec. 21, 2006 at 7:30 a.m. (report)

Steve, I was hoping that you would bring this up, but since you didn't I will. Don't you think that NBA players have become David Stern's little menagerie? Please forgive this analogy, but I think it is appropriate - Have you ever noticed that the NBA draft closely resembles a slave auction? Now Stern (good name for an "overseer", btw) gets to tell them what clothes they should wear, what accessories they can travel with (no gold chains, guns, pot) and now when they act up - he tosses them in the hole. It's really quite disturbing that if there is a brawl on the baseball field, it's funny, and featured as news "on the lighter side" or if there is a fight in hockey, it's well, just another night in the NHL. But when a fight occurs in the NBA, it becomes "disturbing, dangerous, shocking". I just think that it is interesting that once the black man has finally found a venue to rise to prominence, the man is finding ways to put him "in his place".

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