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I'm sorry, David Stern is a complete and utter moron. Much has been debated today over the Hawks/Celtics game last night. And after 24 hours the verdict is - nothing. No media coverage. No suspensions......and not even a single fine. Are you effin' kidding me? Not even a fine??!??? How does an episode like this escape the national media's attention? Considering the the league's top team has suddenly dropped two straight to the Hawks in the 1st round, you'd think the magnifying glass would be all over this series nationally............but nothing.........nada........... and Stern was at the friggin' game! Literally right after Cheryl Miller interviewed him about the fines he assessed to players for "obscene gestures" the fight errupts......

I'm beside myself right now. I mean not even one fine. And to compound matters both Perkins and Williams admitted they walked out onto the court. I'm so disgusted with Stern, especially considering how much he dared to talk down to Suns fans as though they were crazy for their logic about what went down last year, as if we were all ridiculous.

People, you've just learned without any doubt whatsoever that David Stern will enforce rules at his leisure. Please remind me again how this league is on a level playing field.

Nice post.

Two players stepped out to look at the floor, they simply looked around the player in front of them, there was no threat in what they did. And it's the playoffs, who needs a bunch of fines for two guys getting caught up in a situation. It's no big deal.

enigmatics wrote:I'm sorry, David Stern is a complete and utter moron. Much has been debated today over the Hawks/Celtics game last night. And after 24 hours the verdict is - nothing. No media coverage. No suspensions......and not even a single fine. Are you effin' kidding me? Not even a fine??!??? How does an episode like this escape the national media's attention? Considering the the league's top team has suddenly dropped two straight to the Hawks in the 1st round, you'd think the magnifying glass would be all over this series nationally............but nothing.........nada........... and Stern was at the friggin' game! Literally right after Cheryl Miller interviewed him about the fines he assessed to players for "obscene gestures" the fight errupts......

I'm beside myself right now. I mean not even one fine. And to compound matters both Perkins and Williams admitted they walked out onto the court. I'm so disgusted with Stern, especially considering how much he dared to talk down to Suns fans as though they were crazy for their logic about what went down last year, as if we were all ridiculous.

People, you've just learned without any doubt whatsoever that David Stern will enforce rules at his leisure. Please remind me again how this league is on a level playing field.

+1. I think the suns got screwed and stern let boston walk. Even though I think it was the RIGHT decision, he has shown ZERO consistency.

Agreed. The NBA will do everything in it's power to get LA and Boston in the finals. Thank god KG is such a choke artist.

Good Post.

The way i see it is that this time around David Stern did the "right" thing and did not go by the "letter of the law". There was no need to suspend anyone and as for a fine, thats debatable, but fine's really don't have any impact.

What is wrong is that last year, David Stern went with "the letter of the law" and decided to go against doing the "right" thing.

One can only ask for consistency...

Marv and Perk I can live with no suspensions. Neither of them appeared to be heading towards the confrontation, it seemed like more of them were just on the floor coincidentally. Whereas last year Amare and Diaw were clearly walking towards the altercation although they returned to the bench soon after.

The real inconsistency here is with KG not getting suspended. From what I have read on this board, purposely making contact with an official warrants an automatic suspension. There is no question KG made no contact with the official on purpose (even though it was not malicous), so why did he not follow the letter of the law as he did with the "bench rule" with the Suns last year?

Batronuj wrote:Two players stepped out to look at the floor, they simply looked around the player in front of them, there was no threat in what they did. And it's the playoffs, who needs a bunch of fines for two guys getting caught up in a situation. It's no big deal.

Completely agree. But if you judge by what happened to the Suns last season and some of the suspensions this year, Stern should do something.

Here's why I'm not upset about it: Maybe Stern learned from the mistake they made last year in the Suns suspensions.

People cried foul, now they want them to do the exact same thing AGAIN? If it was such a HUGE MISTAKE last season, shouldn't they try and not do that in the future? It sucks that it happened to Phoenix, but just because the NBA made a mistake last year, doesn't mean they should keep making the same mistake just to be consistent.

Now...if say somebody from another playoff team does this and they get suspended, THEN there will be reason to be outraged. At this point maybe we should look at this as the NBA finally showing some common sense in not suspending those players that stepped on to the court.

Suns fans will be telling their grandchildren about how they were "robbed."

Perkins and Williams CLEARLY stepped into the court. Nothing is done.

Garnett shoves a ref where any contact with a ref warrants a suspension. Nada.

Boris freakin' Diaw took 3 steps ON THE SIDE LINE and was suspended by THE LETTER OF THE LAW.

F Stern, what a joke and a hypocrite.

UCFJayBird wrote:Here's why I'm not upset about it: Maybe Stern learned from the mistake they made last year in the Suns suspensions.

And here's why I'm upset: Stern never admits he made a mistake.

UCFJayBird wrote:Here's why I'm not upset about it: Maybe Stern learned from the mistake they made last year in the Suns suspensions.

People cried foul, now they want them to do the exact same thing AGAIN? If it was such a HUGE MISTAKE last season, shouldn't they try and not do that in the future? It sucks that it happened to Phoenix, but just because the NBA made a mistake last year, doesn't mean they should keep making the same mistake just to be consistent.

Now...if say somebody from another playoff team does this and they get suspended, THEN there will be reason to be outraged. At this point maybe we should look at this as the NBA finally showing some common sense in not suspending those players that stepped on to the court.

If this is the case: 1: a rule shold have been implimented/altered to adress this and 2: Stern should explain his change of heart and apoloze. Plus there's no reason that KG should NOT be suspended. This is 100% clear and justified.

I can understand Marvin and Perkins getting off the hook, but KG should not be playing Game 5, he made obvious contact with the ref and that should've been a guaranteed suspension.

David Stern is far from a moron.

i agree with the decision.. BUT F*CK the


INCONSISTENCY



FAVORITISM


STERN IS RUINING THE NBA

KG should be suspended I agree. If he's not suspended by tomorrow night i'll be surprised and just as outraged as everyone else. However Perkins and Williams should not be suspended. And that's what i'm getting at.

Besides isn't it early to jump to conclusions? The NBA suspended Amare and Diaw last season on May 16th, the day of Game 5.

Game 5 for this series is tomorrow.

If a man shoplifts at a grocery store because he's starving, that doesn't change the fact that he committed a crime. It's completely understandable in that case to adjust the punishment for the crime to be less extreme, but you'd be foolish to ignore the law was broken, and more foolish still to refuse to acknowledge that the law exists.

Had the NBA come out and said: "In light of the fact that their actions were not malicious in intent, Perkins and Williams will be fined for coming onto the court during the altercation, but they will not be suspended", most people would've understood. But to ignore the rule because you don't want bad PR ruins the validity of not only that rule, but all rules, because now the rules have become arbitrary, rather than just having their punishments being arbitrary.

As for KG, there is no excuse for that. It was a narrow-minded short term business decision that ignored something which means much more towards long term business: the integrity of the game. Suspending Garnett would've sent a message: We don't tolerate violence, we don't tolerate players initiating contact with officials, etc, even if you're a superstar.

Not only that, but it would have been helpful as part of the league's supposed campaign to repair its image after the brawl. The fact is, a strictly enforced zero tolerance policy would go a long way to help that, and here, Stern had the opportunity to take such a policy, make a huge showing out of enforcing it, and run with it from there, and opted instead to sell out the NBA's integrity in hopes of better playoff ratings for one season.

F-f***ing minus.

Bad Karma for Stern would be Marvin Williams having a lights out game putting Boston on the brink of elimination vs a team he has hated for years.

UCFJayBird wrote:Besides isn't it early to jump to conclusions? The NBA suspended Amare and Diaw last season on May 16th, the day of Game 5.

Game 5 for this series is tomorrow.

the voice of reason