Aside from the awful rule and how irresponsible the league was in instituting this rule without allowing for interpretation, challenges and circumstances, the whole thing just smells.
For those who are on the side of Jackson and being “correct”, congratulations, you just cheapened the NBA product by being correct only for the sake of being correct. More thought should have been put in being “right”. Clearly this is not the right thing to do.
If Stern is already admitting that there should be “tinkering” with the rule, then it is the same as saying that going by the letter of the law is insufficient and should have been handled differently. What Stern is failing to recognize is that the rule worked. Amare and Boris caught themselves after an initial reaction, and did not participate in or escalate the altercation. Neither of them needed to be restrained by an official or anyone part of the game. The rule worked. It had its intended affect of not inciting a greater riot.
I think it is also interesting to note that all James Jones had to do is turn around and get in Elson’s face (in effect cause create an “altercation”), then Duncan should be suspended too. I think Jackson is picking the letters of the law that he wants to enforce. At the very least, he is interpreting the definition of an “altercation” to the betterment of Duncan. What Duncan did was equally as bad as what Stoudamire and Diaw did. What was Duncan’s purpose for leaving the bench and walking out to the 3 point line? If there was no altercation then he must have been looking to start one. He wasn’t celebrating a nice play (when was the last time someone walked all the way out to the 3 point line to celebrate in the middle of live action). Stu Jackson did apply an intrepretation and showed a clear bias.
Historically, this rule was implemented to solve a PR problem but realistically it has to do with the bottom line again being the almighty dollar. Fans made a statement by withholding their dollars to the NBA when bench-clearing brawls got out of control. So the knee jerk (over)reaction became what is now… leave the bench, get suspended rule.
Is it good to have a rule similar to this so that fights don’t happen? Of course. Yet the heavy-handed wrong-headed automatic go to jail, do not pass go, do not collect $200 judgements need to have an out. If it was Pat Burke and Marcus Banks who came off the bench, would be be having this conversation? Probably not. But, if it was Kobe from one of the big market franchises? The discussion would be even greater.
In the end, I seriously considered whether to watch the rest of the Playoffs/Championship. I’m sure I’m not the only to have done so. But I will tell you I am writing letters to the NBA sponsors letting them know I’m not purchasing their products for the only reason that I don’t want to put money in the pockets of the NBA if this is the type of entertainment they want to sell to me. Petty as that may be, I feel it’s worse for an entertainment product to disappoint their customers so blatantly and there not be any means for the customer (me) to communicate (and be heard) just how wrong this is.
— I ran across this link someone setup to sign a petition and have it sent to the NBA voicing any concern with regard to this event. http://www.petitiononline.com/spursuns/petition.html
