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What a moron. How about NOT throwing cheap ass elbows right? On top of that, they've been trying to fake-tough the rockets in this series from the tip. It's about time it caught up with them. Then again that's typical of a Phil Jackson coached team.
Sanity is suspended in the NBA
David Stern and his band of suspension-happy legal eagles are legislating fun out of the playoffs. Derek Fisher's one-game ban is just the latest example of the league's frontier justice.
Mark Heisler
David Stern, Commissioner National Basketball Assn.
475 Park Ave.
New York, NY
Dear David,
I have a joke for you: What would you call you and the rest of your vast legal staff in the NBA office at the bottom of the sea?
A good start.
Just kidding, more or less. I actually have great respect for the way you've run this league, except for this one tiny little thing:
Can you stop messing around with our playoffs?
Are you out of your cotton-picking mind?
Who told you someone wants a postseason dominated not by Kobe Bryant and LeBron James, but by you, Stu Jackson and that general you put in charge of the referees, perhaps to turn them into an elite force to kidnap Mark Cuban?
Stu, of course, is your VP of Suspensions, and business is picking up.
Oops, there goes another one: Derek Fisher, tried to run through Luis Scola's screen at an improper speed, and he is suspended for a game.
This isn't about Fish, but your insufferable judicial system that's out of control, like V.I.K.I., the computer that tries to take over the world in "I Robot."
If only we could inject the nanites into the league office. . . . I have a scoop for you -- your league is in great shape with young stars, big Eastern cities like Boston and Chicago coming back online, new management in New York and the Lakers set for years.
Not that you can assume too much while Ron Artest is active, but the fighting you set out to get rid of ended long ago. Nevertheless, the system you put in place is still voracious, and capable of devouring itself.
It already happened in my nomination for Stupidest Thing This League Ever Did: the 2007 suspension of Amare Stoudemire for leaving the bench, before going back without engaging anyone.
With Phoenix having just won in San Antonio to tie their series, losing Stoudemire all but gave the Spurs the pivotal Game 5 in Phoenix. The Spurs then eliminated the Suns, overwhelmed the Jazz and swept the Cavaliers in the lowest-rated Finals ever.
I didn't think you could miss learning from that fiasco, and it wasn't that your players would have to learn to control themselves better.
Like, how about letting them serve their suspensions next season, so you can play your games and we can still have our playoffs?
How hard is that? I don't make $8 million a year, and no one ever mentioned me as a senatorial candidate.
You geniuses came perilously close to trashing this spring's treasure of a series between Boston and Chicago, after Rajon Rondo got tangled up with Kirk Hinrich in Game 6, and slung him by the arm into the scorer's table.
Chicago Coach Vinny Del Negro campaigned for Rondo to be suspended. Stu probably ran the video so many times, he still sees it frame by frame in his sleep.
For a change, no one was suspended and the fans got to see both teams on even terms in Game 7.
Lucky us.
I know how close we came. One New York Times editorial beforehand questioning your evenhandedness, or suggesting you would cater to TV, and Rondo would have been gonzo.
That's what the playoffs are now: Skirmish, pregnant pause for league review while the opposing coach says this crime against humanity demands a suspension, followed by . . . drumroll . . . the decision!
Where amazing happens . . . at least with the players we have left.
Without any fights this spring, you've already suspended Fisher, Dwight Howard, Rafer Alston and Udonis Haslem, and the second round just started.
Have you legal eagles noticed that you keep defining the crimes down?
First it was fighting. Then a two-handed shove was a fight. Then you could get suspended for taking one step off the bench if two players were just upset with each other -- as Stoudemire was, after Robert Horry's hard foul on Steve Nash.
I was completely behind you when you started this in the '90s, when Detroit's Bad Boys tried to put Michael Jordan on his back every time he drove, putting in the flagrant foul rules that ensured it would be a game of artistry, rather than one in which artists were hunted like deer.
Now Bryant hitting Artest with a one-inch elbow as they wrestle for position under the hoop is a flagrant foul?
With that as a standard, you would have suspended Kevin McHale for life for clotheslining Kurt Rambis in the 1984 Finals if you had been commissioner.
Oh, I forgot, you were commissioner. McHale got a personal foul, but no technical, no fine and no suspension.
I miss those days. No, I'm serious. I'll bet even Rambis misses those days.
That was a great series, with the Celtics avoiding being swept by coming from behind in the last minute of Games 2 and 4, and going on to beat the Lakers, 4-3.
Of course, it may get even better. If you keep suspending people for your biggest games, our memories will be all that's left for us.
Extra-legally yours,
Mark Heisler
What a moron. How about NOT throwing cheap ass elbows right? On top of that, they've been trying to fake-tough the rockets in this series from the tip. It's about time it caught up with them. Then again that's typical of a Phil Jackson coached team.
What a butt . Ya, I want to see Deron Williams' career ended because some like Derek Fisher elbows him in the temple. "But wait, LOL, it's hard-nosed basketball, like the days of Yore!" Ya, please, can we see MORE of this nonsense? Nice ing article, Laker , you're the reason I hate everything about your city/team/mexican fans.
The funny thing is if this article was written by John Hollinger or any one of the ESPN nitwits you'd all be in agreement.
The worst part about the officiating and suspensions thus far is the inconsistency. Rondo gets away with murder while others get suspended for milder infractions. If you're going to call it tight then call it tight for everyone and have clear guidelines. What we have now is a complete mess and mockery of a system.
lol what a got
lol la times
LMAO! There went the credibility of that piece of trash article.
lol, typical LA dip homer.
Be thankful about the league protecting the Kobe vs LeBron finals. Complaining about Fisher suspension?
If Fisher was on any other team, that would have been a 2 game suspension easily.
Yeah, I remember the last guy some guy with a name like Heisler wanted to kill en masse a bunch of Jewish professionals.
Yup, big time Lakers Homer.
LOL, you phrased that wrong, what I think you meant to say was:Derek Fisher, tried to run through Luis Scola's screen at an improper speed, and he is suspended for a game.
Derek Fisher CLOTHESLINED Scola....
Living in LA I have to read Heisler's crap from time to time. He couldn't care less about the "game." He is a Laker apologist who follows Phil Jackson around like a puppy. He has never printed an unbiased remark in his life.
what the does mexican have anything to do with being a laker fan or anytype of fan, basketball or not you racist .
Being a suns fan that got to see a season essentially thrown away due to 2 players simply walking off the bench... Here's the world's smallest violin for you...
Mark Heisler: Scola Flopped
lol @ kleenex suns fans rehashing...no one cares.
It's very simple. Fish went out of his way to throw a shoulder into Scola's upper body. He did flagrantly.. end of story. I hope the lakers lose ..
Let me guess you don't think Kobe meant to throw that elbow?
someone please punch house...
fisher deserved to be suspended, alston deserved to be suspended, howard deserved to be suspended. etc.
rondo got away with it, but it is what it is move along.
kobe got a cheap shot in but it was to the chest ( which is arguable) but it did not warrant a suspension imo.
I didn't see any misspelled words in your post. However, in your disclaimer - there is no such word as "alot".*Disclaimer* I probally misspelled alot of things, and i dont care
He wasn't looking for pity moron he was simply saying that this isn't the first controversial suspension ever in the NBA and the LA fans who think this is the injustice of the decade need to wake up.
I will always think Amare and Diaw deserved those suspensions because they broke a clearly defined rule and regulation. At the same time, I'm never going to feel bad for a team or their fans when stupid rules result in a suspension. The Suns and their fans didn't deserve pity and didn't get any, and neither does any other team.
This almost sounds like he is insinuating that Stu and by proxy Stern should protect the teams position in the playoffs based off the popularity of the players on that team. Maybe that's not what he meant but based off the tone of the rest of the article that's what I initially thought he was saying.Was he watching the same game as the rest of us?Stu, of course, is your VP of Suspensions, and business is picking up.
Oops, there goes another one: Derek Fisher, tried to run through Luis Scola's screen at an improper speed, and he is suspended for a game.
lol..but its ok for Deron Willaims last series to go linebacker on Andrew Bynum right?
The pussification of Spurstalk amazes me. These are the same ers who cheered when Horry hip checked Steve Nash.
I agree with that article, for the most part. I think flagrant 2's should be something along the lines of "This guy deliberately threw a punch", not something that happened in the game like the elbow, or even Alston's love tap.
Also, yes, the author is an idiot about the Fisher foul. That was obviously flagrant/intentional. I don't know about a suspension for it in my "perfect" NBA, but my perfect NBA would probably have more fights...
Anyone who tries to say Fisher did it "by accident" does immediately lose credibility.
I couldn't even finish reading this piece of drivel.
Somebody get this dude a box of tissues and some Summer's Eve.
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