Metsis wrote:Well, as it now officially is, the NBA supports the dirtier players... Phoenix should break out all-stars like Jumaine Jones, Pat Burke and the rest of the bench to go all Hulk Hogan on the Spurs back court of Parker and Ginobili... Phoenix wouldn't be risking a thing basically, as the guys aren't used at all, and if Parker or Ginobili or Duncan were to get hurt and "oh my frikkin god" would step on the court, would be gone from game 6... At least...
Since this is the thing that is rewarded... Lets take down a couple of Spurs players and see what Stu Jackson comes up with after that...
These rules aren't serving the greater good purpose of the game... They are just making the guys who play the rules better than the rest get away with practically a murder...
Break out the hockey sticks and start clotheslining people left and right with the un-used bench players... It's not like you will truly be hurt by losing those guys to suspensions...
And since this is not a one time incident... Nash bumping heads with Parker in game 1... Bowen kicking Amare in game 2... Bowen kicking Nash in the groin in game 3 and now Horry body checking Nash in game 4... Only the game 1 incident I can see as an accident, but the rest are nothing of the sort... The entire Spurs coaching staff should be relieved of duty and banned from the league for supporting this kind of behaviour... I guarrantee that the NBA commisioner Stern and his pal Stu are going to be facing a public upheaval if this does not result in any punishment for the team and players involved...
If you pay me 5 million dollars a year, I can come in and take out some star players from the other team from time to time, if it costs me 35k per "altercation"...
And this whole altercation thing is another thing... Why is this even in the rule book??? So if a player gets hurt, you can go in and help the guy, but if your guy gets into a violent situation, you need to stay on the bench??? Please... If this rule is going to go with the "zero tolerance" policy, the rule needs to be totally clear as well and ban players from heading to the court on all events... Zero tolerance should also go for the rule as well... And not leave some vague description of "altercation" in it... That just doesn't match the "zero tolerance" policy of the league... It just does not...
I was so disgusted when I read this this morning... Maybe Amare and Diaw saw Nash hurt and rushed to help him??? As Duncan and Bowen rushed to help Elson after he crashed with James Jones??? How do you know? Maybe they thought Steve is hurt? Has anyone asked why they went on the court? Has anyone asked why Duncan and Bowen got on the court in the other incident???
This is just a blatant "homie" decision from the league office and essentially a reward for Spurs playing a dirty game...
Mark my words... This thing will escalate extremely quickly and something ugly will be the result of this... And only after that, will Stern and Stu Jacks do the right move...
God how I'm disgusted with these rulings... This was a good series... This will end in fire... Someone is going to go down and hard in the next couple of games...
I don't see how you can blame Horry for Stoudemire's and Diaw's suspensions...
Not to defend what he did, it was totally stupid and unacceptable but it's not like he went and injured Stoudemire and Diaw like you said he's doing, they just used bad judgement and left the bench when they shouldn't have.
Also...If any of you heard what Charles Barkley said about the suspensions, it was basically him saying that the only way a player should be suspended for leaving the bench is if he goes out and escalates the problem.
Well the whole point of this rule is you don't know what a player is going to do. If they changed the rule to suspending only the players who go out and make the situation worse then that's pretty pointless, because by that point the situation can get totally out of hand and impossible to manage for the referees.
As much as I hate to say it, this series has lost a lot of the excitement it had at the beginning. What started out as a series I wouldn't want to miss a minute of has turned into everyone wanting everyone suspended. I'll keep watching it but without Stoudemire and Diaw it's hard to see the Suns winning this series.
