http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2bh6u8_VW8

garnett push, not as bad as I imagined, but still a lack of respect for the ref, Star treatment, plain and simple. forget about the suns and bench thing for a sec…what do you think of the garnett thing?

later

however naive Howard is about talking about pot, at least he’s honest and willing to talk about it, you’ll never get that from stern…never. My wife who isn’t even a close fan was so upset about the double standards and inconsistencies with the whole celtic/atlanta bench no call thing, she was making the familiar “I’ll never watch the nba again” statements that I often make and hear so often. Was there a period where people actually thought wrestling was real? On this years series with the spurs though, no question, the better team won, not the team with more talent or more fun to watch,

I will always believe the suns and this coach (D) could’ve won with this team, they were really beginning to click on some games….it’s simply their weaknesses and lack of hustle during games 2 and 3 that killed them…plus a bazillion missed free throws….That F….ing dog from airbud could make more freethrows than shaq! A F….ing DOG!! Maybe Shaq should have a teammate throw the ball at his face and he could hit it up and in like a dolphin…I’m just saying….it’d be fun to watch…kind of like a car wreck#@$^x%x Seriously, maybe shaq needs some motivation to make more free throws, like a saucer of milk under the basket…....good kitty…come on kitty….you can do it….

...do you think P.Stan would let us have one day where we can cuss, and that every third word has to be a cuss word….that’d be nice..

even though its a stupid rule, even when it works for or against us. Look at the free throw lane violations or the coach on the floor during half the game, or during any call….absolutely any call, the spurs go into their defense and plea with the refs every friggin time!!! Yet if Amare says one thing, he gets a T (much quicker)....I wish we could blog and figure it out, but clearly…the answer isn’t a pretty one…the nba is grossly inconsistent and there’s a reason it’s not as popular as it once was (Jordan – Bird – Magic times)...yes there are more fans, but the population is bigger, to me, its clear…the suns have been great for basketball, they have more out of state fans than any team I can think of, which makes this gross inconsistency by stern even more noticeable….which is good….the nba has one big problem….stern….whomever is the top guy, it should be a vote every 2 years and should involve coaches, so many players, 50 hall of fame players….etc. See how quick stern would be removed.

I wonder how Jerry Colangelo would do?

I’m not defending the league here. I think they botched last year’s call. In fact, I think we’re just missing each other here. I agree that they got it wrong last year for two reasons:

1) They said they were applying a bright line rule when they were clearly not.

2) I think they applied their standard (not rule) incorrectly. But that is debatable.

What I’m saying is, if you were drawing a “bright line” rule here (and note that the distinction between standard and rule is one of degree not of type), it’s fairly easy to distinguish the two.

Assume Perkins and Amare were in the vicinity of the bench before they Horry/Zaza fouls. So the question becomes did they leave that vicinity?

Perkins took two steps. Amare took about twenty. With no definition of “vicinity” you go to the word’s common meaning: near a location, in the proximity of it. And it is certainly true that Perkins was close to the bench. It is very debatable that Amare was.

Perhaps, the best argument here is that the rule is bad one as most deterrent rules are. Stern and Stu say they’re worried about escalation, but they’ve drawn up a rule that’s overbroad. It included Amare who did not actually escalate the scene.

A better policy would be to enforce harsh, harsh penalties upon players who do escalate an altercation (5-8 game suspension). You’re still stuck with a line-drawing problem (but that is true of every rule/law), but now the line you’re drawing is between people who actually took part in the brawl but did not escalate it and people who did. And it’s much harder to have sympathy for a player who not only got off the bench but got involved in the action.

So now you deter players because they know if they are not in the game and they get involved, the hammer drops. It’s better way because the players involved in the disputes over rule interpretation will be less likely to be innocent.