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Post by TavKat on Dec 20, 2006 13:06:56 GMT -5
After a day of scanning videotape and interviewing those involved in Saturday's melee at Madison Square Garden between the Knicks and the Nuggets, the NBA weighed in by suspending seven players Monday, headlined by a 15-game suspension for Carmelo Anthony and 10-game suspensions for J.R. Smith and Nate Robinson.
Interestingly, the league also assessed $500,000 fines to the Knicks and Nuggets organizations. In a conference call after the penalties were announced, commissioner David Stern was careful to say that the team fines were not a means by which to send a message for any roles coaches Isiah Thomas and George Karl played in instigating the fight.
Too bad.
For as wrong as the players were in their actions, Thomas and Karl were equally at fault -- Thomas for fostering an atmosphere of playground justice that likely prompted Mardy Collins to commit the flagrant foul that started the incident, and Karl for leaving his starters in with a 19-point lead in the closing minutes of a game (perhaps as a form of payback for good friend Larry Brown).
But that's just one observer's opinion. Did the NBA get the punishment right? Who got off easy? Who didn't? What do you think? Let us hear it.
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