Guys are athletes. Ergo, guys fight. It happens; It's part of competition, sometimes. No, it's not pretty.
But athletes don't just decide to fight. Fights happen from a long run-up of events that no one's addressing. And it's the last option...all other options seem to be absent. And IT has to stop. Whatever the IT is. So...you fight.
Bad blood has always existed between some teams in every sport. Raiders-Chiefs, Celtics-Lakers of te '80's, Celtic-Knicks, Celtics-Sixers. Yankees-RedSox. And now the Knicks and Nuggets.
The recent brouhaha between the Knicks and the Nuggets that made everyone tsk-tsk and cluck-cluck was much ado about...nothing. The foul that started it all was nothing more than a hard foul. There was the usual chest bumping, pushing and growling. And...a few punches were thrown and a beautiful take- down was executed by a Knick against a Nugget. No fans were involved. Knick fans are much more poised and intelligent than that. And they knew it was just a fight. Not a brawl.
Teammates came out to defend each other. ( Honestly, you don't want teammates who sit on the bench while you're getting jumped by bigger players, more players. )
And a star player made a fool of himself by throwing a sucker punch and then running away or back pedaling really, really fast.
It's sports. Fights happen in sports. This wasn't a brawl. And I'm not talking about what happened a few years ago in Detroit when the players defended themselves against fans throwing stuff at them. No one else was stepping in to make them stop; no one as in security personnel at the facility.
Fights happen because...anger and frustration reach a boiling point. They happen in life, too. They serve to clear the air when no one's stepped in to manage it.
In this game (this season), the Knicks had every reason to be frustrated.
Who wouldn't be frustrated playing for Isiah Thomas?
Who wouldn't be frustrated playing with Stephon Marbury and Stevie Francis as your guards?
Who wouldn't be frustrated with yet another year of losing, another year of getting pounded by the media?
Enter the hated Nuggets. The score's getting run up...and you've had enough. Maybe there was some court-side yapping going on. Imagine!?! And it boiled over.
It happens. Anyone who's ever played sports with passion and desire has seen things escalate to the point that punches are thrown. Sometimes it seems to just clear the air. It's guys. You defend yourself. The opponent respects you. It's over.
Yeah, the media blew this out of proportion. They tend to do that, players. Just like they blow your dunks out of proportion and create the brand called you that lets you earn the bling you cherish, they blew this little tete a tet out of proportion. That media thing cuts both ways.
Here's my solution:
Carmelo Anthony: Carmelo needs to be given the choice: take a sucker punch at half-court from the player you sucker punched and ran away from or be fined a huge amount. But you have to stand face-to-face with that player and make the choice, at the start of your next televised game. The ratings would sky rocket! And this accountability would absolutely stop these sucker punches.
The 2 coaches: Bring them courtside, also at the start of their next televised game. Let George Karl, coach of the Nuggets, call Isiah Thomas, coach of the Knicks, a jackass to his face. Give them 5 minutes to address this situation. I guarantee the ratings on this event would sky rocket AND you'd stop this silly name-calling from happening in the future.
Nate Robinson: Fellows, you need to leave this man alone. But if you feel his take down was a sucker-type takedown...then meet at half-court of the next game and hash it out. I don't think you want to do that, though.
Refs: By now you should recognize when frustration is reaching the boiling point. You can hear the talk; you can see the hard fouls. Step in. Manage it.
Media: Blow it out of proportion. No sense in changing your MO. If you're blow a dunk out of proportion, making it look like world peace has arrive or a solution to global warming is imminent...then take situations like this and make it seem like it's a threat to the game. Fair's fair.
