<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">As NBA commissioner David Stern and his VP of Discipline, Stu Jackson, weigh punishment for the participants in Saturday's Knicks-Nuggets brawl, allow me to suggest the first two people I would suspend. Stern and Jackson. Had either of them had the courage to publicly reprimand Isiah Thomas after he threatened to have the Knicks break Bruce Bowen's feet last month, perhaps Saturday's incident would have been avoided. When Thomas told Carmelo Anthony he would be wise to stay out of the lane, it wasn't too unlike the threat he made to Bowen. And even if Thomas didn't directly order the hard foul on J.R. Smith, I'm sure he made it clear to his players they should take offense to Anthony and Marcus Camby still being on the floor. Jackson should have fined Thomas for his actions in the Nov. 11 game against the Spurs. At the least, the league would have been wise to warn Thomas he risked suspension if he wasn't more careful about his future interactions with opposing players. And league officials should have publicly announced the warning. If nothing else, that would have given them greater leverage to drop the hammer on Thomas this time. When I asked a league official why Thomas wasn't punished, I was told, "Other coaches have said worse." True, perhaps. But this is a different era of the NBA. After the 2004 melee in Detroit, Stern has made it clear he isn't going to tolerate the type of eye-for-an-eye justice teams used to mete out to each other on the court. His new code of conduct also should extend to coaches. Despite their well-intentioned attempts to clean up the league's image, Stern and Jackson should blame themselves for the latest blemish. The Spurs watched video of the brawl in their locker room after Saturday's game, and more than a few of them walked away shaking their heads. "Welcome to the NBA," said one player. "Just when it looked like we were starting to turn the corner, we get to start all over again." Every player in the league understands the recent dress and conduct codes ? and seemingly every other new rule to come out of the commissioner's office the past two years ? was borne from the ugly brawl in Detroit. And every player in the league also understands if the commissioner decides to tighten the reins even more in the wake of Saturday's fight, their peers in New York and Denver deserve blame.</div> Source
The outrage over this incident is way overboard. Should Isiah be punished? Sure, maybe a slap on the wrist. But telling your players to commit a hard foul on players needlessly trying to show up the other team in garbage time is just fine in my book. "Hard fouls" have always been acceptable, even in the eyes of the media, for sending messages to the other team. And the flagrant foul committed wasn't that hard. He pulled him to the ground before he got much elevation, so there wasn't a chance for a real injury. Well, now that it has sparked a semi-brawl because of some idiot players (read: Nate Robinson, J.R. Smith, and Carmelo Anthony), everyone is feigning outrage over it. It would be barely worth a mention in the papers 20 years ago, but now it's some huge controversy.
^I know, its like they are afraid to punish him for his actions(specifically threatening players, although i agree on the Bruce Bowen one).Maybe they are afraid because hes played in the L before And im going to sound stupid, but ive always wondered this, why is his nickname Zeke? Isiah and Thomas, how does Zeke come from that?
^looked it up on wikipedia and I found nothing "He was also referred to by the nicknames Zeke, Cuts (for the numerous cuts over his eyelids), The Baby-faced Assassin, The Smiling Assassin, and Tuss." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isiah_Thomas
Well, now I have officially heard every possible reason why a person could not like Stern. He's not strict enough.
<div class="quote_poster">hustler Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Oh I can't wait for the slam dunk contest, it would be interesting to see Nate vs J.R.</div> Why? Clearly Robinson would win because of his height. Not because his completed dunks after 20 tries.
