Today's travesty of an NBA ruling had me thinking of Charles Dickens, the OG NBA fan.
Why? Because he put these famous words in the mouth of aptly-named (and Doug Christie-style whipped) Mr. Bumble in Oliver Twist. When facing jail time for his wife's misdeeds, he said, "If the law supposes [that a man is responsible for the crimes of the wife] the law is an ####, an ####...and a bachelor."
If David Stern truly believes that justice was handed out yesterday, because "Rules are rules" (as his puppet Stu Jackson said), then the rule is an ####, an ####, and conceived by a man who never played a competitive sport in his life.
Give it up to Cheap Shot Rob - he came through huge for the Spurs. he did it again for his team. The Spurs lose an over the hill scrub, the Suns lose 40% of their starting lineup. All with malice aforethought.
We shouldn't be surprised by any of this. Stern's constant attempts to alternatively paint himself as in total control of "his" players and "his" league have brought us to this point.
The ridiculous "zero tolerance" attempt at banning back talk to referees brought a flood of silly technicals.
The aforementioned zero tolerance experiement allowed Joey Crawford to go out of control at Tim Duncan's expense.
A lack of consistency and fairness has produced a product where Kobe Bryant can get suspended for throwing his arm out while shooting, but Baron Davis' drive-by on Mehmet Okur, and Bruce Bowen's multiple transgressions go unpunished.
And Stu Jackson, Designated Puppet got off the signature line to this mess: "It's not a matter of fairness; It's a matter of correctness."
OK I get David Stern. He's never played a game of competitive anything in his life. Only a man who has never been in the heat of any athletic competition can have the arrogance to tell Dan Patrick, "When will they learn to obey?"
Stern lives in fear of another Kermit Washington punch, and as a result we have a comissioner ruling by fear - his own. And now we have a man trying to turn the league into neat rows of automations.
Safe, harmless, emotionless (unless league-sanctioned), and of course well-dressed.
Don't argue with authority boy.
Don't leave the bench kids.
You know the rules. Why? Because I said so.
The saddest part of all of this? I wasn't surprised. You shouldn't be either. The league knows the ruling is wrong. They KNOW the rule is thoughtless, unflexible, and is in need of an overhaul. But they wouldn't change it because that would be an admission that David Stern was wrong, and we can't have The Infallible One admitting to being wrong can we?
I mean we hit our lifetime quota with The New Ball. When a man who has never played the game has the gall to tell the experts in their field to use the tools that HE feels are better, are you really surprised?
The real surprise is that hiding behind the letter of the law isn't working here. The fans and a previously slavish media is stepping up to finally call Stern to account.
Too late for Phoenix.
Somebody let me know how the game turns out. I might just skip it.
Very well said. Good to see you back in these parts, Dr.
I heard Stern say in an early season interview that he thought the NBA officials were the best professional officials in any league. I haven't been the same since.
The "It's not a matter of fairness . . ." comment from Jackson has to be my all-time favorite. Good thing he realized what he was saying and caught himself before adding, "That's right. You got me. We're not into this fairness thing. We are too busy researching our credibility issues."
Ricko, Tell me how we are going to handle this tonight ? Whats are chances here ? I still have the Suns in Seven your six is weak and my seven is weak too ! Game five would have been ours with the big guys. This is pivital. I see Pat Burke in here alot. Antoni better have him camp his #### under the basket and just play defense. Thomas can not play a full game here with out foul problems. We need double teams from Jones and Marion but you can't leave your man.
The Devil is in the house.
you will notice that mr Stern cancelled his trip to phoenix tonight and chose to go to cleveland instead, is it because he knows that he was wrong, maybe he along with the ignorant officials who thought it was so fun to sit and watch and do nothing about,those that agreed with the suspensions shoud be fired, or better yet, they should be kneed in the groin, and be thrown to the floor, have a few people leteally beat the hell out of them get a few broken bones, need stitches in their faces and then they might actually feel the pain and stop pretending to play god!!!
It seems unfair to the Suns, but apparently that's the rule when guys leave the bench. I think Big Shot Bob should have been suspended for the entirety of the playoffs. It was a flagrant, cheap shot on the other team's best player. Weak. The Spurs will win the next game, as Phoenix will miss the prescence of Stoudemire and Diaw, in the line up.
If the rule is the rule then you MUST suspend Tim Duncan and Bruce the Nutcracker Bowen for being on the floor in the 2nd period "altercation" after the dunk. Duncan was past the 3 point line ON THE COURT and so was Bowen to grab his arm. Stat and Diaw ran down the line BEFORE the "altercation" with Horrible and Raja.
THE RULE IS THE RULE unless you favor one team over another. I love this game, my ####.
I don't wanna hear that "a rule is a rule" bullcrap even one more time. I heard Stu Jackson do an interview on a local radio station this morning (yeah, that's right-we're big time), and he plainly stated that Horry got one game for his flagrant foul and one for the blow to the head. If Baron Davis got nothing for his elbow to Derek Fisher's head, the "a rule is a rule" logic means absolutely nothing. He said many other things that were contradictory, but I'm frankly tired of talking about it. He and Stern are schmucks. If "a rule is a rule," when are they going to start calling traveling? How 'bout when players enter the lane on a free throw before the ball leaves the shooter's hands, which literally happens EVERY TIME that I happen to make a point of watching that situation. So take your double-standards and stick them up your ####, NBA, right next to your credibility.
There I go again, getting all worked up.
ea7777-Don't worry. Between Stoudemire calling them dirty, and it coming to fruition, and the "soft" Suns who "don't play defense" shutting down S.A. late in the game in the Spurs own building-call it karma, call it momentum, hell, give it a new name if you want-but the Suns are not to be denied. Suns in six.
G.H. Brooks (aka "Dr. Midnight" to his loyal fan base) is a 2-time Next Great Sportswriter (NGS) Finalist. One would think that bringing game like that would net me *something* - a cool icon to mark my site, some love from Fox Sports, cash, but noooo... :-)
I'm broadcasting live from New York City after a hiatus from the blogging scene, takes on life, sports, and whatever passing thoughts are shooting through my head. The good and bad ..passionate, logical, and on point.
It's a G Thing.... you can look me up at newjack1@eart hlink.net
