Well, this is fantastic.
I haven’t been to a Nuggets game since last year. We had crappy seats for the last regular season game of the 2005-06 season, what should’ve been an easy contest against the Rockets that the Nuggets managed to lose in the final, lackluster seconds. Then we were there for the playoff loss to the Clippers, which featured a wedding proposal gone awry and the horrible realization that somebody in the world would actually touch Chris Kaman’s stuff.
So it was with clear eyes and full hearts that we looked forward to attending three Nuggets games this week. Things are better since the team fell apart at the end of the season last year. Nene is back and Melo leads the league in scoring and hasn’t been carrying any weed for his friends. Earl is out of his slump and, as far as I know, Reggie hasn’t grabbed anyone’s nuts in months. J.R. Smith can shoot the three and is an amazing young player. Trade rumors aside, this is shaping up to be a great year for our guys.
Then there was the melee at Madison Square Garden. Now, Melo is out for 15 games, Smith for ten, and holy crap, this season is about to go down like Mardy Collins after being bitch-slapped by Carmelo.
From a purely selfish perspective, this sucks for me. I was looking forward to seeing Melo and Gilbert “Mad Crazy Hibachi Genius” Arenas running up the score and a fast-paced, high-scoring battle between the Nuggets and the team that does it best, the Suns. Now, I’m just hoping we don’t get our asses beat by too much. Maybe Gil is tired after his 60-point explosion last night, his elevation tent unable to give him an advantage here at 5280 feet. Maybe Steve Nash is hungover.
Maybe this week isn’t going to be as exciting as I’d hoped.
I’ll get over it, though. Tonight I can entertain myself by trying to find something gold and shiny to wear, so I can be mistaken for a Wizards player or a go-go dancer from the 70s. I can yell and scream and try to get Gil’s attention so he’ll throw me his jersey, which he totally should do, because I am the only person in the world who actually likes those shiny gold numbers they wear on the road, or at least the only person who likes them and actually watches sports.
The problem is that aside from a few less-than-exciting games and a bump in the road of the Nuggets’ season, crap like this sucks for the NBA. It doesn’t suck because players were fighting. It sucks because a bully decided to act like a victim, and he’s getting away with it.
With the seconds winding down in Saturday’s game, Isiah Thomas sent his thug Mardy Collins out to put the hurt on J.R. Smith as he drove to the hoop. Collins put his arm around Smith’s neck and threw him to the ground and chaos ensued, including some pushing and shoving and Melo hitting Collins before retreating across the floor.
After the game, Thomas brought the high bullshit. In short, he blamed the Nuggets for having their starting players in the game while they were up by 19 points with about a minute to go. Now, remember, the Nuggets lost to the Knicks at home last month, even though they were up by 17 points in the fourth quarter. That doesn’t matter to Thomas — apparently, playing your starters at the end of a game you’re winning comfortably means you’re disrespecting the other team.
Let’s say he’s right. Let’s say that George Karl wasn’t trying to end a disappointing road trip on a high note with a convincing win over a crappy team that beat them a few weeks ago. Let’s say George Karl was being an ass and trying to run up the score as some sort of statement against the Knicks and their crappy treatment of his friend Larry Brown. Let’s say that Karl and the Nuggets were exhibiting poor sportsmanship, just for the sake of argument.
So the hell what?
Thomas isn’t the arbiter of good sportsmanship. Even if he were, it’s not cool to react to a perceived wrong by being an ass and sending a guy out to put a hard foul on an innocent player, even if that player is kicking your sorry asses.
I didn’t see it during the game, but ESPN later showed clips of Thomas sitting on the sidelines warning Nuggets players not to go to the basket at the end of the game. Then he sent dude out there to jack up whoever didn’t heed his warning.
So let’s get this straight — Thomas is the self-appointed judge of unacceptable conduct in the NBA and he gets to tell the other team’s players what to do or not do and take physical action against them if they don’t obey.
Maybe that isn’t as crazy as it sounds. Today, the NBA put the disciplinary smackdown on the players involved in the fight, including the 15-game suspension for Anthony and 10-game suspension for Smith.
What about Thomas? Well, he wasn’t suspended. No action was taken against him even though, you know, he’s the one who instigated the whole thing. This is like punishing the kids who participate in the cafeteria food fight but not the guy over in the corner who started it all. It makes no sense, and it lets the truly culpable party get away with it — and if Thomas can get away with this, what incentive does he have to change his behavior in the future? None. Sure he looks like an ass, but that’s never stopped him before.
It would be nice if Thomas learned from this experience — especially if he learned that the best way to keep your team from being embarrassed on the home court is to make your team better. Instead, if he’s learned anything, it’s probably that he can act like a victim (poor us, we were being embarrassed and the Nuggets were being so mean to us by making us look bad) and play the bully. That’s worse for the NBA than some guys throwing punches on the court.
