Seriously. They were trying to start shit with LeBron pre series....now that he's shit all over them, they still want to whine like douches.

If this were the 2007 playoffs, we'd have had a ton of suspensions by now, based on the on-court altercations that have already gone down. :)

The NBA, where inconsistent happens.

Kobe Bryant was brilliant last night.

Looking at that video, I think it was handled just fine on the court and really doesn't warrant more action from the front office. Will they step up and try to make a point based on the heated exchanges from other series? Who knows. But that looked a lot tamer than the hard fouls from Kidd or Stevenson and deserves nothing more than a tech.

Here's the exact rule:
http://www.nba.com/analysis/rules_e....av=ArticleList

There was certainly "intentional physical contact" from Garnett on the ref in that video. According to the rules, there is no leeway for personal interpretation. Again, the point here is to point out how inconsistent Stern has been when it comes to suspensions. IMO, he shouldn't suspend anyone, but I thought the same thing last year. If you are going to suspend Boris Diaw for moving off the court towards the scorer's table because of a "rule", I don't see how KG shoving an official in the middle of an altercation should be excused with a similar rule.

Again, KG's one argument is that the official was grabbing him from behind and it wasn't "intentional physical contact" because he didn't know it was a ref. Worked for me in court.

The other thing is the way the rules are stated, the rule about leaving the bench is an automatic suspension no matter what. Most if not all other cases there is room for commissionerial discretion.

No question Stern is inconsistent with how he uses that discretion.

I agree with the last statement. Here are the exact rules from the NBA rulebook:

leaving the bench

making contact with a ref

They both have no discretion in terms of a non-suspension. Only this two and connecting with a punch have the auto suspension. Even fighting situations have this out:

So, again, according to the rules, Stern has no more discretion with punching a player or making intentional physical contact with a ref than he did with the leaving the bench penalty.

Seems as though the wiggle room for Garnett on the ref contact might be in the defintion of "intentional physical contact".

It's pretty obvious that he made intentional physical contact with someone (unless he has an uncontrollable condition that causes him to close his hand around someone else's wrist). That someone happened to be a ref.

So, in the finest tradition of "what the definition of "is" is", the question would seem to become whether it would have to be proven he knew it was a ref, or if the responsibility is on him to make sure it isn't a ref.

And before anybody thinks I'm lobbying in either direction out of homerism, I'd be somewhat amused if an 8 beat a 1 but I'm not exactly what you'd call a big Hawks fan either, so I'm not particularly inclined to invest much energy in worrying about whether KG is suspended one way or the other.

yeah, it's like last year's "what's the vicinity of the bench" statement. I just don't see how Stern could be consistent and not suspend Garnett.

Well, it looks like Stern finally did make the right decision:


http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/playof...ory?id=3374218

It's just a shame the league couldn't have used the same common sense last year.

USA Today had the final NBA stats in todays edition.

The Lakers ended the season with SIX players with more than 200 assists this year.

No one else had more than 4 players.

On New Orleans, ONLY Chris Paul was over 200.

Yeah they're all passing to ball hog Kobe. :D Kidding kidding!

Man, if I was a Suns fan I would be PISSED all over again about last year's suspensions.

Fucking bullshit that the Rockets-Jazz game is on NBA TV, which we don't get here. Probably all the better, though. They seem to play better when I'm not watching...

I'm not a Suns fan and think this is a HORRIBLE decision by Stern. There's no point whatsoever in having a rule if you aren't going to enforce it.

I think it's the right decision. The rules have to be followed with a touch of common sense. If anything, Pachulia should be suspended for intentionally head-butting Garnett.

That being said... they now lose credibility because of their inconsistent ruling of what constitutes as a violation when stepping on the floor is concerned. (last year, Amare, took ONE STEP towards the floor before immediately sitting down... and he got suspended.)

Rockets force a game 6 with a dominating win in Houston...

Agreed!

I guess this is where you and I disagree. It is either the rule or the enforcement last year on the Suns that was horrible. This decision in a vacuum is clearly the correct one.

(Can I say how odd it is to have JimGA arguing leniency while others go the absolute respect to authority and rule of law route. ;) )

Mike D'Antoni has been fired.

SI exclusive, apparently.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/200...ml?eref=sircrc

I'd wait for the official announcement though.

Utah wants another home game for revenue purposes :)

The rule is absolutely horrible as well.

It will be interesting to see who they bring in.

After watching the Suns-Spurs last night, I am increasingly convinced that there is no need to change the intentional foul rule. Free throw shooting is as much a basketball skill as anything else. If a player can't make free throws, then it is up to his team to decide whether his other skills compensate for that deficiency. There really is no need to make rules to compensate for skill deficiencies. If the Suns drop their throws last night, they probably win that game, but there can't be rules made to make up for a player's lack of skill.

Nah. I was just saying what I figured the argument would be (and apparently the one that won out), not what I thought they ought to do ;)

I can buy that it's a bad rule. However, during the off-season any owner including Robert Sarver could have suggested it be changed. Nobody said a thing during the meetings of the competition committee. All I'm saying is, if there's a rule with no ambiguity and no room for interpretration clearly stated as such, you make a mockery of it by not enforcing it. This idea of using 'common sense' when the rule makes no allowance for such just doesn't make any sense at all to me. I don't even understand the point of having rules at all in the first place if everything is going to be up to the commissioner's ever-changing whim regardless of what the rule actually states.

As we're probably the only team in the league to not have a losing record in Utah this year, I like our chances...

This is the part where the Cavs fire Mike Brown between playoff series, and bring in D'Antoni.

Who's out there for the Suns?

I hope the Raps bring him in.

Yes, do it.

Is that a jigsaw piece on his jacket?

That is totally not true. Watch the video again.

Garnet is pulled back, the ref steps right in front of him and clearly Garnet sees him before coming back toward the group. That's when he pushes the ref away.

Good god what puzzle would Isiah be the final piece to?

You would probably be wrong then :)

I can see Phoenix and Dallas switching coaches.

I would like D'Antoni for the Raptors too but I don't think Mitchell can be blamed for this season on his own. Colangelo has to surround Bosh with much better talent or it doesn't matter who is coaching the team.

Mavs fires Avery Johnson
 

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3375306

He could probably pick up another 14 year old in that outfit.

Mavs and Suns both made big mistakes. In neither case was it the fault of the coach. The Suns over the past couple of seasons have traded away far too many assets in the name of cost cutting, leaving the team with a 7-man rotation.

The Mavs have suffered from a mix of their high profile players not performing and the fact that they traded away so much depth to get Kidd.

If either team - Phoenix in particular - thinks there's another coach out there right now that can do better than the guys they had, good luck to them.

Caron Butler hits a shot to put the Wizards up 1 with 4 seconds left. I'm totally impartial...did he not take about 7 steps on that shot?

Lebron should be making shots like that, doh. On to Game 6.

Yeah, it definitely looked like he took an extra step or two. But then again, Lebron does get away with it all the time too.

LeBron went and got bitchslapped by Darius Songaila.

Ain't that somethin'...

the refs in the BOS - ATL series have been HORRIBLE

dola

reminds me of why I hate the NBA. I feel like more than in any other professional sport, the referees have this desire to "insert themselves into the game" or affect the outcome of the game. And there's just ZERO consistency - some of the blocking fouls called tonight were straight-up charges for example.

I think the NBA game is the hardest to officiate - I watch replays and I still have no clue what the right call is a lot of the time, especially in a block/charge situation.

like the reffing in college basketball is any better, really. I know it's frustrating how many reputation calls get made in an NBA game. I'd like to think that they get 95 percent of the calls right, though. Nothing is going to be 100%, look how much stuff gets missed on the football field, for instance.

Except for Violet Palmer. Fuck that bitch.