I should probably write a letter to Stu Jackson and David Stern--not criticizing them, but thanking them. By sticking to their guns, and enforcing the "no leaving the bench during an altercation" rule down to the last letter, Mr. Stern and Mr. Jackson have managed to accomplish something the Suns themselves had not been able to do all season--make me care about them like I did the 2006 team. You see, up until now, I haven't been anywhere close to as emotionally invested in this year's team as I was the "underdog team" of a year ago. That may sound scary given how often I post on here, but it's true.

I'm not exactly sure why that is. Perhaps it is about self-preservation. I never ever want the outcome of a sports game to affect me the way it did when the Mavericks eliminated the Suns last year. That image of Dirk Nowitzki comforting a sobbing Steve Nash after the game was over sticks with me to this day. In that moment, it felt like this heartbreaking disappointment had happened to a member of my own family. A part of me never wants to go back to that place again--especially over a silly game involving a bunch of rich millionaires I've never even met.

But I think there is a little more to it than that. Last year's team earned that kind of emotional involvement from me by turning what should have been a "lost" season into a legitimate run at a title. It's probably not fair to penalize the 2007 Suns for not having to overcome injuries to 2/3 of their backcourt, but I just never have been able to view them in the same light as I did the team a year ago. This year's Suns aren't "overachievers"; they're merely doing what was expected of them given the increased level of talent on the team (and they won't even accomplish that if they don't make it out of this round). It isn't their fault, it's just the way things are.

But David Stern's ruling has changed all of that. I'm not mad at him at all for enforcing the rule in a way that is totally consistent with how similar situations were handled in the past. I am however, outraged at a system that allowed the game to come to this in the first place. It has awakened in me a gigantic sense of injustice on behalf of some good people who don't deserve to have six months worth of their hard work--not to mention their life-long dreams of winning a title--scuttled because of somebody else's thuggery. It isn't just Amare Stoudemire and Boris Diaw who are being punished here. It's Steve Nash, Shawn Marion, Leandro Barbosa, Raja Bell, Kurt Thomas, and every other player on the team along with the coaching staff. None of those guys did a single thing wrong, yet everything they worked for all year is being jeopardized because of an inane system that rewards teams for cleverly sending in a goon to incite an uprising when they can't win the series any other way. Because of the way the system is designed, there's a very real chance the Suns' season will face the same heartbreaking end as last year's team. And that makes it personal. It's now about "real people" again, instead of just jerseys and numbers. So thank you David Stern for making me feel like the league just wronged a member of my family. I didn't think it was possible I could ever be in this place again. Now I know better.