That was the biggest news for the NBA during the past weekend. It all started in a blow-out victory for the Denver Nuggets over the home team New York Knicks. The Nuggets were holding an insurmountable lead towards the end of the game, but head coach George Karl still had his starters playing on the court and did not intend to pull them out, probably to drive up the score to add further insult to the opposing head coach Isiah Thomas (Thomas had a fallout with former Knick head coach Larry Brown and fired him, and Brown is a close friend of Karl's). Thomas appeared to be pissed by that, and allegedly warned the Nuggets' biggest star Carmelo Anthony to better stay away from the basket, clearly implying a hard foul would be coming. A moment later, Nuggets shooting guard JR Smith got the ball, drove to the basket, and was grabbed and thrown hard on the floor by Knick guard Mardy Collins. Smith got up and apparently said a few words to Collins, then another Knick Nate Robinson stepped in and grabbed Smith, and after that all hell broke loose. Carmelo Anthony threw a right hook punch and hit Collins, then more players got involved, some trying to join the fight, while some trying to break it up. 10 players were ejected as a result.
Today the penalties for the involved players were announced. Carmelo Anthony, who actually threw a punch, is to be suspended for 15 games, the most among the punished players. Knick head coach Isiah Thomas, though alleged to have ordered the intentional hard foul, did not receive any penalties at all. I think he got lucky here. This guy really had a history of this kind of thug-like behaviors, back in the days of Detroit Pistons "Bad Boys", famous for committing hard fouls against opponents' stars, the main focus being Michael Jordan of the Chicago Bulls. It's really a disgrace to the sport that violence has to be a part of it. I hope this is going to be just an isolated incident. I don't want to see another incident that reminded me of the Palace brawl between the Pistons and the Pacers a couple years ago. It would be a shame.