It's just another development in what is turning out to be one of the most exciting NBA playoffs in years.  It started with the reckless style of the Golden State Warriors chopping down the Western Conference Champs and playoff favorite Dallas Mavericks.  It's continued with Derek Fisher flying across the country from New York City where his young daughter was having life altering surgery and giving his team a charge to victory. And now the country is fixated on the Suns vs Spurs series where Amare Stoudemire has called out Bruce Bowen (who hasn't) and the Spurs for being dirty.  And just like he always seems to do "Big Shot" Rob, Robert Horry, connected on a shot that will change the entire playoffs. Only this time it didn't come from his right hand holding the pose as he connected with the shot but it came from his left forearm as he leveled Phoenix point guard and leader, Steve Nash, into the scorers table.  As a result Horry will miss both game 5 and 6, and the Suns will lose key players Boris Diaw and Amare Stoudemire because in the words of NBA Executive Vice President Stu Jackson "they left the immediate vicinity of the bench".

I know that the NBA were pretty much screwed whatever decision they made on this situation but they did it to themselves.  They've gone with a black and white system of judgement.  Earlier in the year if anyone questioned a call they were immediately given a technical.  Forget the fact that the refs are human and therefore subject to error and the player might have the right to question a call.  And in this case it's a clear cut rule that if a player leaves the bench during an altercation they are immediately subject to a one game suspension.  But shouldn't they be looking at what the actions of said players that leave the bench?  In this case you have the Suns team leader being taken out with an obvious cheap shot and Stoudemire and Diaw in a moment of intensity jumped off the bench and moved towards the action.  Bear in mind that they never even got to the action and that the assistant coaches did their job in getting between the players and reminding them what the consequences of them leaving the bench meant.  You can even see as Stoudemire moved back to the bench that he had no intent of doing anything and wanting to follow the rules and get back to his seat.  So basically these guys are being punished for doing what they are coached to do from day one.  Be a team.  Apparently the NBA thinks that the players are robots and that when they are on the bench they have a swith that someone flips that turns off all intensity and emotion.  But it doesn't work like that Mr. Stern.  Teammates are like a family and if you don't have enough in the guts to stand up when someone takes out your brother then you're not much of a person.  The actions of these players didn't do anything to effect what happened on the court or harm anyone.  The rule was designed to protect the players on the court from recieving a cheap shot from a player off the bench.  So enforce it that way.

 

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