Brawls? I love em. Long as nobody get's seriously hurt. Has there ever been a serious injury in a brawl other than Rudy T? Brawls lite fires....create rivalrys....generate "drama." Clear out the bad blood by identifyin the men AND the boys. Plus they tend to make me get outta my chair and enjoy the festivities. This may wake up the "sleeping giant" in the Apple. Whatever "morality" might be, I doubt you'd be runnin to the beer stand while one was goin on. Go Pistons! Go Knicks! Go Bulls! Go east (except the Magic)! We want our lottery pick!
I was just thinking about that when I saw the box score from last night. Nothing like a fight to get your team united and on the same page. Perhaps getting hammer at home and having a team try to rub it in turned on a switch.
Seems like something weird has to happen to some teams before they get on a roll:- 1. The Bulls - since the 'Headbangate' issue, they went on a streak. 2. The Knicks - 3 games winning streak (longest this season for them) since the brawl. 3. The 76ers - broke a 12 game losing streak the day AI debuts for the Nuggets. More to come...
Btw, Thomas is coaching his azz off during this streak. He should be applauded. Great overtime victories and due to the recent suspensions, I think he's found a good consistent rotation.
I'll go along with Winless and Hatter on this... Surely brawls are a negative influence for the kids... so is a lot of what they experience on school playgrounds (cussing, fighting, verbal cruelty etc)... I don't believe in sheltering the kids to the point that when they do see or hear something outrageous that that are tramatized:dizzy2:.... the real world is not enjoyed in a protective G rated bubble. Reminds me of some of them 15 year old kids that still hang onto their mommy's purse straps... they eventually receive a cold hard slap of reality. I hope my kids can defend themselves ... as long as they are taught not to seek out abusive behavior. What qualifies as acceptable violence? Boxing Hockey Wrestling (pro or armature) Football Arm wrestling :^) Someone care to draw the line for the kids eyes?
For the heat Zeke has taken he does have a lot of talent on that team although all the pieces do not compliment eachother. He needs to trade Q. Richardson. You don't need Q if you have Crawford. Trading for Francis was just plain stupid. No one is going to trade for a broken down Francis especially with his bad contract but he needs to be set free. David Lee has put up better numbers at Small Forward than Power Forward.
Bunch of bull. The only ones who were tramatized were the refs for looking like a bunch of dorks everytime a fight breaks out that they are too small to stop. Thats why the refs wanted that summit to address the violence issues.
That's why I think Stern is full of crap. He should have met with the refs. I still say that to stop the violence from getting out of hand they need to increase the leaving the bench penality from 1 game to 5 games. They also need to add heavy suspensions for instigaters guy's that jump into a fight between two people and make things worse and are not trying to break it up.
If the NBA really wants to stop fights and violence they need to include some type of clause in player contracts indicating a very stiff penalty for fighting. That way a player will be aware of what the consequences will be and it will surely be a deterrent. For example, if Carmelo and Nate Robinson were aware that they would be suspeneded and fined for perhaps MORE that they actually were, I guarantee we would have not seen what we did.
I am watching game 5 of the 2004 finals and around the 8 minute mark of the 1st period Prince goes to the hoop for what could have been a slam. Shaq gives Prince a forearm shiv across Prince's neck while Price is in mid air knocking Prince to the floor. No flagrant and no fight.
Buddhafan, as the days wear on, something is becoming obvious to me. The escapegoats are Isiah Thomas Carmelo Anthony George Karl Mardy Collins when in fact the real bad guys are JR Smith (overreacting) Nate Robinson (3rd man in)
My point was that I don't think its a big deal as long as it stays on the court and does not involve the fans. Getting punched by Stephen Jackson is not exactly my idea of a holesome family event. With that said the refs do have a point in that the participants are rather large individuals and there is no way they can effectivly break up on court brawls on their own.
I totally agree. Fights happen it is part of the game. For the media to act like it is the end of the world and that it is a stain on the league is a total joke. You have to admit though things can get ugly when you have 5 or 6 fights break out on each end of the court. It is not only hard to break them up but control what intoxicated fans might do when they are within an arm's length of a fight and there favorite player is getting a butt whooping. That's why trying to limit fights to just the original patricipants and stopping the 3rd and 4th man in is the only way to control the fights from getting out of hand. As for Stephen Jackson yeah it kind of ruins the excitment when you end up with a knuckle sandwhich and drenched in diet coke.
Unless the foul drew blood no reason to get bent out of shape. I have seen guy's take forearm shivers to the head and not react like JR Smith. They will look at a guy and maybe have words but that would be the extent of it. I think Nate should have gotten 25 games in my opinion. He really has a Napolean complex and was the 3rd man in to a altercation that had calmed down between Mardy and JR Smith.
Again, stiff, I mean stiff penalties that are included in your contract would be a sure deterrent. That would probably never happen, however, it would possibly eliminate fighting.
