Ouchie-Z-Clown
I'm better than Mulli!
I am a 38 year old white professional man making a very good salary. I love sports. In other words, I am your target consumer. I am your cash cow. Please listen to what I have to say.
I have been a fan of the NBA (not only the Suns) for almost my entire life. My love affair with the league reached crescendos in the early 90s. Unfortunately, that love is dissipating rapidly.
I understand that playoff basketball raises the intensity level of players greatly. However, what I have seen of the playoffs this season leads me to believe that you have succumbed to the Ultimate Fighting consciousness of the viewing audience. The chippiness and cheapshots that I have witnessed, not only in the Suns-Spurs series, but others as well, is not only uncalled for, but ugly. Really ugly. And your responses have been uneven, inconsistent and unequitable. I look to you for control and I see nonsense.
Obviously I am going to make my points using the Suns-Spurs series as it has the main of my attention. For a long time the spurs have been called a vanilla team. Harmless. But for that same duration players such as Ginobilli and Bowen have been called dirty. The team is what its players are. And this series has done nothing but confirm the dirtiness of the spurs. Bowens hacks at Amare's legs on a dunk and purposeful knee to nash's groin (which should hurt worse than a mere grab as Jason Terry perpetrated last year) are obvious examples. And yes, Bowen received a retroactive (RETROACTIVE!!!) flagrant 1, but no suspension. I recall Terry being suspended for similar action. Horry's actions need no further description other than to say he's just despicable and should not be allowed to play in this series again. Now I would like to see a response showing me where the suns retaliated. Once. Just once? Have you seen that inclination from the Suns team? No. They just continue to play hard basketball. Why is that important? I will get to that in a moment.
The "letter of the law" in regards to the "coming on the court during an altercation" dictates that amare be suspended for a game. You are correct, that is the letter of the law. And he did come onto the court. However, as a fellow attorney, would you ever expect a court of law to rule without taking into consideration facts and circumstances? I think not. A court may rule in equity where law fails. Here, the law fails. Equity would have been better served. The spirit of the rule is help avoid escalating confrontations. No confrontation was escalated. Yes, Amare did step on the court, but he was eventually returned to his seat with no further altercation. The stakes are high and he still kept his cool. Suspend him? Fine. But that makes the law wrong.
The reason the law is wrong? It encourages actions like Horry's. This is why I am rapidly falling out of love with the NBA. The law states players leaving the bench area are punishable. That's stupid. What about players that are already on the court rushing into the melee? If anything, Raja should be suspended, as well as all the Spurs players that laid hands on Raja and Nash.
Bah, I am so upset at this ruling and the actual rule that I can't continue. I knew this would happen. It had to happen. Here's the short of my thoughts:
1. I understand the suspensions, but do not agree with them. Letter of the law, fine. But that doesn't take into consideration the facts and circumstances. No law, particularly one about basketball (this is BASKETBALL WE'RE TALKING ABOUT!!!), should be so black and white.
2. The ruling encourages thugs. Take out the best player on the opposing team with a scrub and encite players, hopefully their better players, to violate a stupid rule so they get suspended. Hmm, maybe coach d should pay attention.
3. I so wish the Suns would retaliate in kind. However I don't want anyone hurt. At heart I am a good guy, and is it really fair to injure Duncan, Parker or Ginobilli? No. But by the same token, it is unfair to allow the Spurs to benefit from the actions of one of their thugs. Ultimately this encourages the use of Dennis Rodmans and Rick Foxes of the world. Have your designated thug pester (or hurt) someone into stupid retaliation. That's what I see the league becoming. And becoming it ain't.
4. The Suns have no hope of winning game 5. Losing Amare makes that more probably. Losing both Amare and Boris makes that absolutely a given. We have no bigs. None. Kurt can't play more than 25 effective minutes. I can't see how coach D counters this. This will also be a demoralizing defeat. I loved the idea of the team showing up in street clothes in protest of the game.
5. Winning two in San Antonio? I just don't see it. I thought last night's game was a great "coming of age" moment for the team. We finally did to the spurs what they traditionally do to us. We trail all game and then for once we are the ones that make stops at the end of the game while they helplessly watch us catch, pass, and pull away from them for a change. But to make the team come of age twice in the same series? Just don't think it's possible. I thank the league for taking this season away from the fans. We lose this series in 6 games, and it's a shame, because we lose the series due to a stupid rule.
6. The rule should be changed in the offseason. Coming off the bench is not an issue. Getting involved in the altercation is a problem. Did anyone run down and punch anyone ala Carmello? No. Coming off the bench is a stupid threshold that ultimately usually benefits the team creating the thuggish behavior b/c the thug team has no impetus to run onto the court to help their fallen camarade, while the felled player's teammates do. The rule is counterintuitive and should be altered. Even if it will not help us today, it would be an improvement on the NBA.
7. Last night was the first time I had fallen in love with THIS Suns team. Two years ago I fell in love with the newness of the team. Last year I fell in love with the grittiness of the team. It took until last night for me to fall in love with the Suns finally getting over on the Spurs. And now this. The JJ injury, the Amare and Raja injuries, and now this stupid suspension. Curse? Naw. We're just screwed. Bring on the draft lottery, I cannot wait to see the Hawks get a top three pick to slam shut another year of disappointment in the NBA.
8. If the Suns are knocked out of the playoffs in this series I will continue watching the Suns, but I won't watch other NBA basketball, nor will I pay my hard-earned NBA-targeted-demographic dollars for anything NBA-related. I just don't like the leadership of the product.
db
I have been a fan of the NBA (not only the Suns) for almost my entire life. My love affair with the league reached crescendos in the early 90s. Unfortunately, that love is dissipating rapidly.
I understand that playoff basketball raises the intensity level of players greatly. However, what I have seen of the playoffs this season leads me to believe that you have succumbed to the Ultimate Fighting consciousness of the viewing audience. The chippiness and cheapshots that I have witnessed, not only in the Suns-Spurs series, but others as well, is not only uncalled for, but ugly. Really ugly. And your responses have been uneven, inconsistent and unequitable. I look to you for control and I see nonsense.
Obviously I am going to make my points using the Suns-Spurs series as it has the main of my attention. For a long time the spurs have been called a vanilla team. Harmless. But for that same duration players such as Ginobilli and Bowen have been called dirty. The team is what its players are. And this series has done nothing but confirm the dirtiness of the spurs. Bowens hacks at Amare's legs on a dunk and purposeful knee to nash's groin (which should hurt worse than a mere grab as Jason Terry perpetrated last year) are obvious examples. And yes, Bowen received a retroactive (RETROACTIVE!!!) flagrant 1, but no suspension. I recall Terry being suspended for similar action. Horry's actions need no further description other than to say he's just despicable and should not be allowed to play in this series again. Now I would like to see a response showing me where the suns retaliated. Once. Just once? Have you seen that inclination from the Suns team? No. They just continue to play hard basketball. Why is that important? I will get to that in a moment.
The "letter of the law" in regards to the "coming on the court during an altercation" dictates that amare be suspended for a game. You are correct, that is the letter of the law. And he did come onto the court. However, as a fellow attorney, would you ever expect a court of law to rule without taking into consideration facts and circumstances? I think not. A court may rule in equity where law fails. Here, the law fails. Equity would have been better served. The spirit of the rule is help avoid escalating confrontations. No confrontation was escalated. Yes, Amare did step on the court, but he was eventually returned to his seat with no further altercation. The stakes are high and he still kept his cool. Suspend him? Fine. But that makes the law wrong.
The reason the law is wrong? It encourages actions like Horry's. This is why I am rapidly falling out of love with the NBA. The law states players leaving the bench area are punishable. That's stupid. What about players that are already on the court rushing into the melee? If anything, Raja should be suspended, as well as all the Spurs players that laid hands on Raja and Nash.
Bah, I am so upset at this ruling and the actual rule that I can't continue. I knew this would happen. It had to happen. Here's the short of my thoughts:
1. I understand the suspensions, but do not agree with them. Letter of the law, fine. But that doesn't take into consideration the facts and circumstances. No law, particularly one about basketball (this is BASKETBALL WE'RE TALKING ABOUT!!!), should be so black and white.
2. The ruling encourages thugs. Take out the best player on the opposing team with a scrub and encite players, hopefully their better players, to violate a stupid rule so they get suspended. Hmm, maybe coach d should pay attention.
3. I so wish the Suns would retaliate in kind. However I don't want anyone hurt. At heart I am a good guy, and is it really fair to injure Duncan, Parker or Ginobilli? No. But by the same token, it is unfair to allow the Spurs to benefit from the actions of one of their thugs. Ultimately this encourages the use of Dennis Rodmans and Rick Foxes of the world. Have your designated thug pester (or hurt) someone into stupid retaliation. That's what I see the league becoming. And becoming it ain't.
4. The Suns have no hope of winning game 5. Losing Amare makes that more probably. Losing both Amare and Boris makes that absolutely a given. We have no bigs. None. Kurt can't play more than 25 effective minutes. I can't see how coach D counters this. This will also be a demoralizing defeat. I loved the idea of the team showing up in street clothes in protest of the game.
5. Winning two in San Antonio? I just don't see it. I thought last night's game was a great "coming of age" moment for the team. We finally did to the spurs what they traditionally do to us. We trail all game and then for once we are the ones that make stops at the end of the game while they helplessly watch us catch, pass, and pull away from them for a change. But to make the team come of age twice in the same series? Just don't think it's possible. I thank the league for taking this season away from the fans. We lose this series in 6 games, and it's a shame, because we lose the series due to a stupid rule.
6. The rule should be changed in the offseason. Coming off the bench is not an issue. Getting involved in the altercation is a problem. Did anyone run down and punch anyone ala Carmello? No. Coming off the bench is a stupid threshold that ultimately usually benefits the team creating the thuggish behavior b/c the thug team has no impetus to run onto the court to help their fallen camarade, while the felled player's teammates do. The rule is counterintuitive and should be altered. Even if it will not help us today, it would be an improvement on the NBA.
7. Last night was the first time I had fallen in love with THIS Suns team. Two years ago I fell in love with the newness of the team. Last year I fell in love with the grittiness of the team. It took until last night for me to fall in love with the Suns finally getting over on the Spurs. And now this. The JJ injury, the Amare and Raja injuries, and now this stupid suspension. Curse? Naw. We're just screwed. Bring on the draft lottery, I cannot wait to see the Hawks get a top three pick to slam shut another year of disappointment in the NBA.
8. If the Suns are knocked out of the playoffs in this series I will continue watching the Suns, but I won't watch other NBA basketball, nor will I pay my hard-earned NBA-targeted-demographic dollars for anything NBA-related. I just don't like the leadership of the product.
db
