That's what the NBA "punishment" is for the brawl Saturday night.
David Stern, be prepared for your next venture into Conseco Fieldhouse. The booing will probably lift the roof.
Anthony gets 15 games. Robinson, 10, Collins, 6, and Jeffries 4. And each team is paying a $500K fine.
Ron Artest punches out a fan and gets the rest of the season to think about his sins. Jermaine O'Neal clocks another fan (who came onto the court) and got 25 games, later pleaded down to 15. And so forth.
Now I'm not saying that players should go after fans (although frankly, had I been Ron Artest, I would have done the same thing he did, which can be discussed at a later time) but how much worse is it when you go after your co-workers? These guys have to face each other on the court for the rest of their careers. We don't need bad blood between players to make the NBA more of a thug haven than it already is. I don't want to see Flagrant 1's being called every time one of these guys goes up for a basket and one of the others is standing underneath.
The fact is that every one of these guys ought to be out for the season, if there is going to be any muscle behind the NBA's zero tolerance policy. It only goes to show what a bunch of pussies the NBA front office are that they couldn't even hand out parity with what was given to the Pacers.
FWIW I said the same thing in comments on FoxSport's blog on the suspensions, except I said "wimps" instead of "pussies".
