First, I have to be honest - I'm new to the whole blogging thing. I only started reading them 6 months ago or so, and started my own blogs just in the past few months. I didn't know who Henry Abbot was before he showed up on the Worldwide Leader. The first few posts, I was excited - he linked to a bunch of interesting articles, he seemed like a bit of an insider, and seemed really passionate about something I'm also passionate about - Hoops.
His past few posts have been idiotic, though. He's becoming pompous and irrational. His defense of the Commish and the Spurs has been irrational, culminating in his post today, on Stern and his 'headache'.
My synopsis of his article (it's not a blog anymore, folks): the Brawl in Auburn Hills was the worst thing that ever happened in the NBA, we have to avoid something similar happening in the future at all costs, therefore players leaving the bench during an altercation rules must be enforced.
You know what that is? That's Abbot taking a very high profile event, and using it to justify a really bad rule and almost-as-bad decision in the Spurs / Suns game. Why?
- What instigated that whole fiasco was a drunk fan throwing something at a player, not a hard foul or a fight on the court.
- It was escalated by players leaving the bench area, but they were headed into the stands, not onto the court...What Stoudemire and Diaw did was not similar in any way to what Stephen Jackson and Artest did in Detroit. They were moving down the sideline to a fallen team-mate, not into the stands trying to guess who threw something.
So, how do you prevent people from going into the stands, and fans and players swinging away at midcourt? Well, you fix the arenas, and you create rules so severe that people will think twice before either throwing something or taunting players / coaches / refs too hard, and convince players that stadium security will handle anything that comes up. Oh, and if players go into the stands for any reason, they're done. Not just for a game, or a lot of games....done.
Does punishing Amare and Boris as they were punished prevent someone later from chasing down a rowdy, drunk fan? Maybe, but the circumstances are too different to draw the conclusion Abbot is drawing.
The rule is a bad rule, it was applied selectively and subjectively to Stoudemire and Diaw, and that's a fact jack.
And, someone should tell Abbot and Stern that if they go to the 'I have a headache' line too many times, we - the fans - will run around on them and start frequenting seedy Arena Football and UFC events. Put out, guys, it's the best way to keep us around.
Good post. I too think that the rule was enforced incorrectly.
Posted by: Nugg Doctor | May 22, 2007 at 10:44 AM