NBA RULE 12-A-VII-c: During an altercation, all players not participating in the game must remain in the immediate vicinity of their bench. Violators will be suspended, without pay, for a minimum of one game and fined up to $35,000. The suspensions will commence prior to the start of their next game. …
The NBA has reached an unSolomon decision.
Amare Stoudemire and Boris Diaw should not have been suspended for tonight’s Suns-Spurs game.
Nor Robert Horry.
The league should have let the players play. Instead, a fantastic series has become an appalling fiasco.The Suns were badly burned, and a victory by the Spurs in Game 5 would be foul forever.
By now, everyone has seen the replays, seemingly on a continuous loop, of Horry’s hit on Steve Nash and the subsequent reactions with 18 seconds to go in Monday night’s playoff game.
The NBA not only punished the players, but the teams, the cities, fans everywhere and the game. Where’s the justice? You be the judge, and I’ll represent the defendants.
My arguments, your honors:
* If it pleases the court, first, the meaning of “immediate vicinity” in the rule must be established. “Near or close at hand.” In a discussion of debris flow in Colorado, the term “immediate vicinity” referred to an area outside and above the town of Ouray. Stoudemire and Diaw did not venture away from the bench’s “immediate vicinity” and cause a potential fray, and it must be noted that Nash was knocked out of bounds on the Suns’ side of mid-court in San Antonio. The rule should not apply.
* The rule specifically uses the phrase “during an altercation.” There was no altercation (a noisy quarrel or confrontation) when Stoudemire and Diaw arose from the bench – if I may address the bench – and wandered in the direction (but not out of the “immediate vicinity” of the nasty incident). Nash lay prone on the floor, and Horry was walking away. Only when Raja Bell (who was in the game) challenged Horry did an altercation begin, and Stoudemire and Diaw were well out of range.
* Stoudemire and Diaw did not harm anyone from the other team or in the crowd. They did not touch anyone. They did not fling anything nor hurl abusive language. (Stoudemire did say to the audience the word “dirty.”) The two Suns were innocent bystanders.
* Let the evidence show that Stoudemire and Diaw have no history of NBA suspensions. As a matter of fact, when Bruce Bowen kicked Stoudemire’s Achilles in Game 2, Stoudemire did not respond because he didn’t want to risk a suspension.
* In a 2002 exhibition between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Sacramento Kings, players Rick Fox and Doug Christie got into a first-quarter scrap, and both were ejected. Fox waited for Christie in the tunnel leading to the locker rooms and attacked him. Several of Christie’s Sacramento teammates and Lakers center Shaquille O’Neal left their team benches and ran into the tunnel to join the fracas. Fox was suspended six games and Christie two, but the others were not punished by Stu Jackson, NBA executive vice president of operations and league disciplinarian.
Jackson said: “Our policy regarding an automatic suspension for players leaving the bench was not intended to apply in a highly unusual situation like this one, where an altercation occurs in an access tunnel or hallway. In this circumstance, our judgment was that the players who left the bench were attempting to break up the fight and did not escalate the altercation.”
Stoudemire and Diaw did not escalate the altercation Monday night, and they might have been intent on preventing a fight.
* What about Tim Duncan? In the second quarter of Game 4, it appeared that James Jones of Phoenix undercut Francisco Elson, and they became entangled. Duncan, who was on the bench at the time, apparently believed the two were in an “altercation,” so he walked on the court and inside the 3-point arc and stood just before the action resumed, then returned to the bench. I submit that if Stoudemire and Diaw violated the rule, Duncan did, too.
* Regarding Horry, we throw ourselves on the mercy of the court. He has been a good man (except when his 3-pointer finished off the Nuggets) and owns six NBA championship rings. He was guilty Monday night of being a sore loser and, in his defense, suffered from temporary insanity when he decked Nash. He was punished with ejection and public humiliation.
* This special series, tied at 2, deserved to have all the players participating in tonight’s game.
There should have been leniency in this “highly unusual situation” (Jackson’s precedent-setting words). The NBA should have fined the players the maximum $35,000, put them on probation (with zero tolerance), allowed them to play in Game 5 and demanded from the players, the coaches, the referees and the fans: Order On the Court.
The decision was unwise and unjust. Jackson and commissioner David Stern cut the baby in half.
I rest my case.
Staff writer Woody Paige can be reached at 303-954-1095 or wpaige@denverpost.com.
