The New York Knicks-Denver Nuggets Fight: A Wholly Different Perspective

I’m supposed to come out one way or the other on the Knicks-Nuggets “sorta” fight. People are calling Carmelo Anthony a girl, Mardy Collins a Don Chaney-trained thug, and associated Isiah Thomas with every scandal outside of the JFK assassination. The national sports press has taken this opportunity to attempt to destroy Thomas with a vigor normally reserved for Barry Bonds or Terrell Owens.

Here’s what’s being said about Isiah:

Terry Frei, Denver Post:

Carmelo Anthony’s punch-and-run gambit notwithstanding, when the NBA metes out penalties today, league officials should make it clear the biggest culprit in the Madison Square Garden melee was …

Isiah Thomas.

The Knicks’ president and coach should be banished from the bench for 20 games – plus receive a commensurate staggering fine, in case Thomas considers not having to coach the ragtag roster he has assembled to be a reward, not a punishment.

What a baby….

Thomas should get what’s coming to him.

Scorn, 20 games and one huge fine.

Selena Roberts, New York Times:

Commissioner David Stern should punish Isiah Thomas for a tacit and direct pattern of bounty-hunting. Thomas doesn’t take hits; he orders them.

Dave del Grande, Inside the Bay Area:

Madison Square Garden has had more than its fair share of great fights over the years. Saturday’s one-punch fiasco that probably will knock out Carmelo Anthony for the rest of the month was not one of them. That’s not to say it didn’t have a ton of potential … had George Karl walked up and belted Isiah Thomas.

I’d have loved to see it. No lightweight in the history of the Garden deserved a bloody nose more than the Knicks coach.

Make no mistake about it: Thomas is to blame for the ugly incident.

I remember thinking Isiah Thomas was a punk – hell, I thought it for years – when he, as captain of the Detroit Pistons, led his team off the court before the final buzzer when they lost the 1991 Eastern Conference crown to Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls. Like most people I thought Thomas was just an insolent loser for “hating” on the Bulls and particularly Jordan.

However, looking back on that playoff series and viewing it in the context of playoffs since, there may have been something else that Thomas and the Pistons knew that led to the walk-off. All the Pistons starters left and that includes Joe Dumars, perceived as an all-around good guy in the Association.

I now view the walk off in a different light. I view it in the light that this was the year that Jordan was anointed to “legendary status” by NBA Commissioner David Stern’s public relations machine. I now know that, what were “no-calls” in the Bulls-Pistons series the year before (1990), suddenly became fouls with a Jordan-led Bulls parade to the free throw line in 1991. I remember the 2002 Western Conference Finals and the trouble with huge discrepancies in the foul calls in favor of the NBA Shaq and Kobe-led Los Angeles Lakers as they barely escaped the clutches of the Sacramento Kings. I remember last season’s Miami-Dallas NBA Finals and the inordinate number of free throws shot by newly-anointed NBA wunderkind Dwyane Wade.

Is there something we don’t know about Isiah’s relationship with David Stern and the league office? A question: why, when Allen Iverson is mentioned as the best player 6’1″ and under since, “Blank” is that blank filled with the name Nate “Tiny” Archibald instead of 6’1″ Isiah Thomas? Archibald’s name is, relative to Iverson, repeated by NBA-related media personalities and those close the league itself like a mantra. Here are Archibald’s career stats: 18.8 ppg, 2.3 rpg, 7.4 apg, 1.1 spg. Here are Thomas’ career stats: 19.2 ppg, 3.6 rpg, 9.3 apg, 1.9 spg. Archibald has one ring that he won off the back of Larry Bird-led phenomenal 1981 Boston Celtics’ team. Thomas was the undisputed leader of the Detroit Pistons 1989 and 1990 NBA Championship-winning teams. So, why is Thomas slighted?

How odd is it that Thomas bought Continental Basketball Association without the blessing of David Stern? Why would Stern turn his back on one of the legends of the NBA? Thomas bought the CBA with the intention of linking it to the NBA as a minor league. Because of Stern’s seeming lack of real interest in Isiah’s venture, Thomas felt he could inflate the CBA’s worth and sell it back to the Association at a profit. Stern’s response was to start the NBDL, which was tantamount to a f*** you note to Thomas. Stern went about of his way to tout his then unformed NBDL and steal any sponsorship opportunities from the CBA. And for those of you who think or believe Stern isn’t capable of this type of behavior, and with ensuring that his message trumps all others in the media, do a little research and check out his treatment of the Seattle Supersonics’ franchise and their efforts to build a new arena.

Finally, there’s Isiah versus George Karl.

George Karl, head coach of the Denver Nuggets is known as a smug bastard with an out-sized sense of self who’s made many enemies with players and front office-types in his years as a head coach in the NBA. Karl, since it was announced this past July that he had prostate cancer, has suddenly become, in the eyes of the public, a sympathetic figure.

Karl is an ex-North Carolina Tar Heel who is a Larry Brown disciple. Brown and the Knicks’ situation is known and over-hashed. But it is thought by those in Larry’s camp that Isiah was solely behind Brown’s firing. so, it makes sense that Karl would exact some revenge for the perception that Brown got the short end of the stick at the behest of Thomas. But this is George Karl talking about Doc Rivers and black NBA head coaches, in general in Esquire Magazine:

“Doc does a great job — and now there’s gonna be four or five more anointments of the young Afro-American coach. “Which is fine — because I think they have been screwed, deep down inside. They have been screwed. But I have a great assistant coach that can’t even get an interview. So I get pissed off.”

The coach assistant coach Karl was taking about was non-Afro-American Terry Stotts (and, Afro-American? Is that some George Jefferson, 1970s shit, or what?).

This is what’s said about George Karl:

Karl will be in the place he hates — coaching a heavily favored team in the playoffs that suddenly trails an underdog. His neuroses, insecurities and paranoia will come pouring out in ways virtually unseen anywhere else in sports.

…and this:

But much like in Seattle, Cleveland, Spain, and every other stop Karl made on the map, the Bucks stopped listening to him. Not to name names here (Ray Allen) but some players even grew to despise George Karl to the point that the relationship became unfixable, and Milwaukee‘s perennial all-star and face of the team was traded.

Most coaches wear out there welcome, that’s a given, but George has turned it into an art form. When George wears out his welcome on a team or player, it’s to the point of no return…. The reason behind this is George acts like a child when he gets fed up with his team. He won’t pull guys aside in the locker room and point out what they are doing wrong, he goes to the papers and other media outlets and bashes his guys, or gives them a backhanded complement.

George isn’t the most well-like guy in any room, probably not even by himself if he’s all alone.

According to a Denver Post article, here’s what Karl had to say about Thomas and his excuse for leaving his starters in the game: In Denver, Nuggets coach George Karl was irate with Thomas, who said today that Karl put his players in danger by leaving them on the floor too long. Karl accused Thomas of a “premeditated” act, underscoring his disgust with the New York coach with expletives.

“It was directed by Isiah,” he said during a shootaround. “I think his actions after the game were despicable. He made a bad situation worse. I’ll swear on my children’s life that I never thought about running up the score. I wanted to get a big win on the road.” “My team has had trouble holding leads at the end of games,” he added. “I didn’t want the score to get under 10 points because if it would’ve gotten under 10 points it would’ve had a negative feeling on my team.”

I smell b.s. The Nuggs were up 119-100 at the 1:15 mark – the time of the fight – with all the Knicks starters out of the game. Does anyone actually believe that the Denver players were biting their finger nails on the bench praying the game wouldn’t get under 10 because of the negative feeling it would produce?

Please.

As for the event and the players involved in the sorta-fight, I’m non-plussed. Take away Nate Robinson and Carmelo’s punch and this is a non-event. I’m not going to call Melo a female dog name, I’m not going to call him a “girl.” He punched Collins and got surprised when, out of the corner of his eye Jared Jeffries came running at him. Anthony was obviously surprised and completely unprepared for Jeffries taking a run at him – so he bailed.

So what. Every person, every media outlet, every website or blog dealing with the players and who is this or that is dealing only with the periphery of the event. There’s much more to this at the heart of the sorta-fight.

So, whose to blame for this sorta-fight? Is it the Karl-Brown-Stern Axis of Snivel defending “The Right Way” mantra of all neo-Brownian motivational speakers and Sternian doo-wop addicts, or the Thomas, Laimbeer-Bad Boy, Anti-False Icon faction that has, for years declared Holy War on the Axis-O’-Snivel?

Let’s go back to the game. There’s 1:31 left, the score is Denver 119, New York 100. Marcus Camby just sank two free throws giving Denver head coach George Karl ample opportunity to remove his starters. However, the scene on the floor looks like this: all the Knicks starters are on the bench while the Nuggets’ starters stay on the floor.

Here’s a quote from someone who knew a thing or a million about basketball:

“It all boils down to this. I used to hate these college coaches or any coach that was 25 points ahead with three minutes left to go, and they’re up pacing and they’re yelling and coaching because they’re on TV, and they want their picture on, and they get recognition. To me, the game was over. The day’s work is done. Worry about the next game.

“So I would light a cigar and sit on the bench and just watch it. The game was over, for all intents and purposes. I didn’t want to rub anything in or show anybody what a great coach I was when I was 25 points ahead. Why? I gotta win by 30? What the hell difference does it make?”

Thanks, Red.

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postscript: Here are the suspensions for the sorta-fight:

Carmelo Anthony – 15 games; Nate Robinson and J.R. Smith – 10 games; Mardy Collins – 6 games; Jared Jeffries – 4 games; Jerome James and Nene Hilario – 1 game; each team was fined $500,000