This is the first I’ve heard of punches. I didn’t notice any on the replay.

If there were really punches, though, wouldn’t someone have mentioned that before. Before the penalties came down, both Barnes and Nash said it was just a lot of pushing. If it was Suns pushing and Rockets punching, shouldn’t that have been mentioned earlier?

Maybe Stern just likes international players from everywhere but the North American continent (that’s right, I called him anit-Hispanic; how many Mexicans are in the league?).

Yeah I hadn’t heard that either before the Nash quote. You can kind of see something on the replay but there isn’t that good of an angle to tell either way.

a season ago, that hurt us more. But this is just a regular season game that the suns were throwing away anyways. If they were that upset about being behind, maybe they should’ve played harder earlier…bottom line, we came up against a great defensive team and we couldn’t hit our outside shots. I’ll be very anxious for the rematch with Houston.

There´s a bright side to everything. Let´s hope for the best.

i read on rotoworld that the suns are appealing the suspensions/fines. though it would still leave nash and barnes out for the game (if it were indeed overturned), it might get rid of the fines for nash and shaq. and, if stern is feeling extra generous (and maybe had a little 20/20 hindsight), he might even take a game off of rafer and barnes’ suspensions.

wishful thinking.

we didn’t cut Goran Dragic.

In all seriousness, though, this is ridiculous. I could maybe understand the two-game matching suspensions for Barnes/Alston (although I figured it’d be just one), but the Nash part is an embarrassment.

…i’m upset about it all, but not infuriated. it is, however, setting the tone toward the suns early in the year. there will be little tolerance for anything of the sort, later in the year, and, knowing barnes (and his short fuse), there will be more.

though, it’s only a regular season game. we lost nash for a game against the kings. worse things have happened. in all actuality, it’s a bit frustrating, but all in all, we can deal with it. it’s still an annoying bump in the road, though.

the suns tagline for the season should probably read:

suns basketball ‘08-’09: what else can we shake up?

From Kerr’s reaction:

Kerr said he was also told by NBA executive vice president Stu Jackson that Barnes would have only received a flagrant foul, level two, had Alston not charged at him.

That’s not often that happens. I heard he was a big part of it, and the league labeled him ’ as a big part of it " or something along the lines. Sucks he is suspended. Not often it happens. I agree the refereeing should get two for failing to prevent.

I was on the show tonight and Dave Burns and there was certainly no way to convince him that Nash’s actions were anything other than hostile. My argument was how could we know what Nash meant to do since he tripped on a foot right as he got to the scuffle? Nash said the same thing…how could the NBA judge what Nash was doing either way?

Burns was convinced that the NBA did the right thing and we should stop whining. I think our “whining” is justified and it all goes back to consistency – I’m tired of us getting screwed. Ugh.

Of course, if the Suns win tonight, all will be well in my world again. :)

This is a Flagrant 2?

This has been said before, but I’ll repeat this:
David Stern was the NBA’s chief attorney in 1968. He lost the legal case that allowed Connie Hawkins to join the Suns.
Ever since becoming Commish, the rumor is that David Stern has had it out for the Suns in part because of the legal ruling.

Ridiculous, Incredulous…maybe so, maybe not….