nBa iN tHe wRoNg ???

When Phoenix's Boris Diaw leaped off the bench after teammate Steve Nash was hip-checked to the floor in the waning seconds of Game 4 on Monday night, he was more likely to be delivering croissants than seeking retribution against San Antonio's Robert Horry, the player who committed the foul on Nash.
NBA rule's intention is to prevent an already bad situation from escalating.
The rules state that in the event of an on-court incident, "all players not participating in the game must remain in the immediate vicinity of their bench. Violators will be suspended, without pay, for a minimum of one game and fined $35,000." The rule was instituted after a bench-clearing brawl between the New York Knicks and the Chicago Bulls in the 1994 playoffs and cemented during the NBA's darkest hour, the 2004 brawl in the Palace of Auburn Hills in which Indiana Pacers players went into the stands.

This situation in San Antonio, however, wasn't even close to that one. Nor was it close to what happened even in the Denver Nuggets-New York Knicks game at Madison Square Garden last December, when a few players came off the bench after a small fracas started under the basket. Every rule must be enforced with common sense, and this is one that called for a dose of that from the league office.

Here's the sequence of events: Horry hip-checks Nash almost directly in front of the Phoenix bench. Nash could've been seriously hurt. Stoudemire and Diaw rise in protest. They don't come near Horry. They don't cock a fist. Diaw, a confirmed pacifist, takes a few steps and then seems to think, "Ah, hell with it," and retreats. There was no threat of escalation, no exchange of physicality at all, except for the Suns' Raja Bell shoving Horry, an act that drew a technical foul. A careful review of the tape -- and I have no doubt that the NBA reviewed it countless times -- reveals that there was no threat of this thing turning into a donnybrook.

The NBA deserves much credit for going to great lengths to reduce the violence in its game. But rules with no wriggle room, rules with no gray area at all, do not serve the game.

The net result of this incident is that Horry commits a dirty play and the Suns are the team most severely penalized, having to play Game 5 without their leading scorer in Stoudemire and a top reserve in Diaw.

Is it fair??? or is it just a matter of correctness??? says Stu Jackson.

Courtesy : si.com