Huge Brawl at the Garden

[artestfighttrainer]

Gotta give some credit to Running Man Melo for his apology but I don't think it will help that much, he'll probably will get suspended for 10-15 games. He'll still get his all star spot imo but he's definitely out of the MVP chase.

[The X]

In reality, Carmelo should only get about 5 games, but I reckon he'll get 10-15, with 12 being the operative number....but then again, he only slapped Mardy....

Nate, that little punk who got gifted the dunk contest, will get 8 games....in reality, he was main cause of it getting out of hand....Smith & Collins weren't fully going at it, but it was little Nate who sparked everything....

JR Smith should get about 3 games for retalliation, but I think he'll get 5....

Mardy Collins did needless flagrant foul, give him 4 games as the league proves a point....

Jared Jefferies gets 2 games for looking like a lunatic....

and Isiah Thomas is the wildcard....I think he'll get 3 games, but I think Knicks' fan would be happy for a season long banning....

ahh well, thank god for the Knicks' shining star, David Lee, who has once again shown he is too good for the Knicks' organisation....

[Erchamion]

Yet one player involved in the Pacers-Pistons fight in 2004 said all the attention to a couple of brawls is overblown. "Listen, the NHL lets them fight. Fights happen in baseball. Fights happen in football," Indiana forward Jermaine O'Neal said. "Why are we under scrutiny about our game?"

That's what i meant when i was saying that Jack Thompson, uhh i mean David Stern has to retire and let a NBA-veteran run the show.

[joejam999]

[Christopherson]

wow, I guess I'm not really surprised.

Updated: Dec. 18, 2006, 1:05 PM ET
Suspensions total 47 games from Knicks-Nuggets fightESPN.com news services


NEW YORK -- The Denver Nuggets were the bigger losers Monday after the NBA handed out penalties in the fight that broke out near the end of Saturday night's game against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden.

Denver's Carmelo Anthony, the NBA's leading scorer, was suspended 15 games for sucker-punching the Knicks' Mardy Collins. Denver teammate J.R. Smith and New York's Nate Robinson also received stiff penalties from the league -- 10-game suspensions.

But there was no separate penalty for Knicks coach Isiah Thomas, who had warned Anthony not to go into the lane before the mayhem started Saturday night.

The NBA, still trying to repair its image after the brawl between Indiana Pacers players and Detroit Pistons fans two years ago, also fined the Nuggets and Knicks $500,000 apiece.

"It is our obligation to take the strongest possible steps to avoid such failures in the future and to make a statement to all who follow the game of basketball that we understand our obligations and take them seriously," NBA commissioner David Stern said in a statement.

Collins, whose hard foul of Smith was the flashpoint for the fight, was suspended for six games. Knicks forward Jared Jeffries was suspended for four games, and New York's Jerome James and Denver's Nene were hit with one-game penalties for leaving their respective benches during an on-court altercation.

Thomas had a discussion with Anthony about 20 seconds before Collins delivered an arms-around-the-neck foul on Smith on a breakaway basket. Though Thomas acknowledged telling Anthony not to go into the paint, he said he meant it not as a threat but as a lecture on sportsmanship.

"I don't regret fouling him as hard as I did, I just regret that the whole thing escalated the way it did," Collins said Monday. "I was out there competing and I didn't want the guy to get a layup and I was basically trying to stop him from going in the air. That's why I fouled him that hard, so he wouldn't get hurt."

After the game, which Denver won 123-100, Thomas and Knicks players were angry that the Nuggets had four starters on the floor with 1:15 to play. And while Thomas wouldn't say if Denver coach George Karl was trying to embarrass the Knicks, he again stressed that starters shouldn't have been in the game.

"I can't speak for him, but he put his players in a tough position," Thomas said. "I think he put his players in a very bad position."

All 10 players on the floor were ejected after the brawl.

Anthony said Sunday he was sorry his emotions got the best of him. He apologized to fans, the Nuggets, the NBA, his own family -- and to Collins and his family.

"Last night's altercation with the Knicks escalated further than it should have. I take full responsibility for my actions in the matter," Anthony said in a statement. "My actions were inexcusable, and I am sorry for making this an even more embarrassing situation."

[Sauru]

i only wish that anthony had punched isiah in the face to earn his suspension.

[Gedas]

This only means that Kleiza will get MUCH playing time tonight, and thats always a good thing.

[el badman]

I'm surprised how "light" the suspsensions are, I really thought Stern would go crazy on them, but I guess punching players will never be as bad as punching random people from the crowd...

[maes]

15 games for melo...that's seems like a slap on the hand compared to what Stern dealt out for the Palace brawl.

Artest: 86 games
Jackson: 30 games
JON: 25 games

Seems like a double standard is going on here.

[3P]

Stern was smart not to go hard on them, you don't want to eliminate a MVP canidate like Melo or a fan-favorite like Nate [he is atleast in my opinion].

"I don't regret fouling him as hard as I did, I just regret that the whole thing escalated the way it did," Collins said Monday. "I was out there competing and I didn't want the guy to get a layup and I was basically trying to stop him from going in the air. That's why I fouled him that hard, so he wouldn't get hurt."

What a good reason to clothline him, he will be hurt less than if he hits the floor.
Maybe Stern will add a few games to his suspension for the worst escuse ever.

[Buckley]

I heard about this during one of my classes, not really surpsied by the punishment.

[BIG GREEN]

I'm not suprised but definitly dissapointed at the obvious double standard. I'm convinced that david stern really needs to be outted as commish. I see isiah thomas still has his "bad boy" shit going on.

[dan_suth]

What's wrong with 15 for Melo? That's perfect in my opinion (although deep down inside, my dislike for him was hoping that he'd get 30+ ) - his actions in the brawl were nothing compared to what Jermaine O'Neal did at the Palace. JON straight up decked a fan, and although that fan had no place being on the court, O'Neal had no right knocking him the fuck out. I honestly started laughing out loud when I read somebody in this thread saying that a fan who comes onto the court is more dangerous than an NBA player. Wow, that's just ridiculous.

Anyway, based on the lengths of the suspensions given out to the Pistons/Pacers players, I almost completely agree with the lengths given to the Knicks/Nuggets. The one thing I am kind of disappointed with is that Isiah Thomas wasn't punished - there's video evidence of him warning Carmelo not to go for a dunk or go anywhere into the paint. Obviously he had instructed his players to commit a hard foul if one of the Nuggets went up for a dunk. At least suspend him for a game or a couple games even... or fine him a large amount of cash. His actions were inexcusable.

[[Q]]

i only wish that anthony had punched isiah in the face to earn his suspension.

I wish Jeffries didn't get tripped by Camby at the end so he could beat the shit out of Melo in addition to that.

[Chris_23]

I'm surprised the punishes were rather low, I expected Stern to go all out bananas over this, but he seems to have taken it quite reasonably even complimenting his players for passion and such on court.

15 games is definetly not a light punishment, but it is not overdone either. For someone that young like Carmelo to not be able to help his team for fifteen games, well, it must be tough. But a valuable lesson nevertheless.

[Indy]

What's wrong with 15 for Melo? That's perfect in my opinion (although deep down inside, my dislike for him was hoping that he'd get 30+ ) - his actions in the brawl were nothing compared to what Jermaine O'Neal did at the Palace. JON straight up decked a fan, and although that fan had no place being on the court, O'Neal had no right knocking him the fuck out. I honestly started laughing out loud when I read somebody in this thread saying that a fan who comes onto the court is more dangerous than an NBA player. Wow, that's just ridiculous.

How stupid can you possibly be to think that a fan on the court is less dangerous then another player? The players are supposed to be there, and the fans are not, it is as simple as that. If a fan comes on to the court, you don't have a clue what he's going to do. You don't know if he has a knife, you don't have any idea what his deal is. A player is obviously on the floor because he's supposed to be. If I'm an NBA player and I see a fan on the floor, I take him out as soon as possible.

I'd like to know your reasoning behind thinking that a player could possibly be more of a threat then a fan. Especially when the fans have already showed to be fucking idiots by throwing beers at players and sucker punching them from behind.

[cyanide]

I'd like to know your reasoning behind thinking that a player could possibly be more of a threat then a fan.

I think he was thinking of it more in terms of a basketball player who is a 6'8" 200-pound athlete vs. a 5'6" beer-gut salesman.

I'm not suprised but definitly dissapointed at the obvious double standard. I'm convinced that david stern really needs to be outted as commish. I see isiah thomas still has his "bad boy" shit going on.

I'm not sure about the double standard. 15 games seems about right considering it's an on-court altercation. It's different from what Carmello did: sucker slap/punch a player on the court then backpedal away vs Ron Artest jumping into the stands and beat the crap out of the wrong fan, causing a huge riot, getting other fans and players involved, or Jermaine O'Neal delivering a knockout punch, which is widely regarded as the greatest single punch in the history of the NBA, not on a player, but on a fan.

Edit: Carmello's suspension is the sixth longest suspension in league history for an on-court incident.

[Christopherson]

I wish Jeffries didn't get tripped by Camby at the end so he could beat the shit out of Melo in addition to that.

Jeffries is too much of a skinny little bastard to kick the shit out of melo. He'd get hurt again just trying.

On another note, this is the funniest thing I've read about the whole Melo running thing:

The Cowboys can't win the Super Bowl if they don't shore up their pass defense. Lucky for them, I have a way they can do it. But it's a rather out-of-the-box idea: Sign Carmelo Anthony to play cornerback. He is a great athlete and, as Saturday night's Nuggets-Knicks brawl proved, Anthony could play tight and bump a wide receiver at the line of scrimmage, but then still sprint backwards remarkably fast to get back in coverage. Plus, he'd be a good locker-room companion for Terrell Owens because he hates snitching.

[CMJ3]

15 games without Melo and 10 with out JR Smith, the Nuggets have a long road ahead of them, the suspension is fair and i think Stern took into consideration that Melo actually made a formal apology. Mardy Colins should of got 8 or so in my opinion he was the starter of this whole thing.

At least Nuggets fans can put this behind them for now and carry on with the games ahead of us. Carmelo should come back revamped and earn his respect back which i think he will do. Looks like its up to Marcus and Andre to keep this team winning.

[cyanide]

Mardy Colins should of got 8 or so in my opinion he was the starter of this whole thing.

While I agree that the suspensions were fair, I also thought Collins got the right amount with 6 games. He made a flagrant foul and usually a flagrant foul could give a game or two suspension, the extra four games I guess can be counted as "starting this whole thing," but I don't remember him actually trying to escalate anything.

[Andreas Dahl]

Seems like fair punishments to me

How stupid can you possibly be to think that a fan on the court is less dangerous then another player? The players are supposed to be there, and the fans are not, it is as simple as that. If a fan comes on to the court, you don't have a clue what he's going to do. You don't know if he has a knife, you don't have any idea what his deal is. A player is obviously on the floor because he's supposed to be. If I'm an NBA player and I see a fan on the floor, I take him out as soon as possible.

Like cyanide said. A possibly intoxicated fan that's been through the fairly strict arena security, ranks lower than a worked up, much larger athletic monster with a chip on his shoulder... I dunno, it depends on how you look at it I guess. Over here it's not at all uncommon that fans run onto football pitches just for the sake of it; yet no player would try to punch them out.


By the way, why do people keep calling it a sucker-punch? They were facing each other, one was probably saying some ill advised words and the other one punched him.. Seems like a "normal" punch to me. Not much sucker about it..

[CMJ3]

Yeah it wasnt a sucker punch, it just looked worse because Collins didnt protect himself which i dont understand why.

Isiah Thomas should have got a suspension also as this was all his fault after he indicated to Melo a hard foul was going to be made in the paint and told Melo to stay clear. He should have got 2-4 games at least for that alone.

[grusom]

Here's the official statement: http://www.nba.com/news/Nuggets_Knicks_Suspensions.html

The suspensions and fines are below:
# The Knicks and Nuggets organizations have each been fined $500,000 each as a result of the altercation.
# Nuggets forward Carmelo Anthony has been suspended for 15 games.
# Knicks guard Nate Robinson has been suspended for 10 games.
# Nuggets guard J.R. Smith has been suspended for 10 games.
# Knicks guard Mardy Collins has been suspended for six games.
# Knicks forward Jared Jeffries has been suspended for four games.
# Knicks center Jerome James has been suspended for one game for leaving the bench during an on-court altercation.
# Nuggets forward Nene has been suspended one game for leaving the bench during an on-court altercation

[Chris_23]

By the way, why do people keep calling it a sucker-punch? They were facing each other, one was probably saying some ill advised words and the other one punched him.. Seems like a "normal" punch to me. Not much sucker about it..

If you look at the punch alone, yes, there's not much 'sucker' about it. But, don't forget the fact that Melo decided to run off after the hit. This is why it's called a sucker punch, a cheap hit the guy was not expecting and then Melo running away. Melo running away would not have been bad had he not 'hit' another player. If you've ever been in a fight, you know that you have two choices, either hit the guy hard enough hoping that he won't retaliate, or hitting him and then fighting it out. Definetly not run away when it is you who initiates the violence.

[Christopherson]

Melo running away doesn't make it a sucker punch. I think the reason Melo ran away has nothing to do with him being a pussy and everything to do with him realizing what the hell he just did and wanting to get the hell out of there. It was more of a "holy shit I just punched a guy on the floor and I am supposed to be a team leader" than a "I'm afraid of getting hit." He was just getting the hell out of there to avoid further involvement.

As for the whole fan on the court incident... the Indy/Detroit brawl recieved larger suspensions because it involved fans. Period. End of story. You do not hit a fan. JO is 6'11" and very muscled. I'm sure he could have handled everything the fan could have thrown at him. He should have reacted defensivly not offensively.

Personally, as far as the suspensions go, I thought the Nuggets got screwed. I think Melo got a little bit too much. Other than connecting on one punch, he really didn't do much. The punch came at a time when things were dying down a bit which is not good. Stern needed to send a message that fights do NOT need to be escallated. I also think JR Smith got screwed. He was in no way a big of factor in the brawl as Nate Robinson, yet he gets the same amount of games? Isaiah Thomas should have definatley got a suspension as well, but I don't think that part of it is over. I would bet Stern wants to do a bit more research before suspending a coach.