Cleveland56
Situational Stopper
- Joined
- Apr 22, 2005
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First Timmy Duncan for laughing, and now this..I love it.
madisonmax said:He's a "punk" who helped lead the Warriors to the playoffs. Without his 3 pt shooting, they don't make it.
If Indiana's resident idiot Larry Bird didn't give up Jackson & Harrington, the Warriors never sniff this postseason.
The evolution of NBA etiquette has been a startling thing to behold. There was a time when you could shove somebody, fling an opponent into a row of photographers, even throw a few punches and stay in the game. The Celtics' Sam Jones once grabbed a chair, the better to take on a rampaging Wilt Chamberlain, and both players returned to the floor when the tempers had cooled.
As Baron Davis discovered at a very bad time Wednesday night, you can now get ejected for sarcasm.
There's no rationalizing Davis' behavior in Game 2 of the Warriors' playoff series against Dallas, because he knows the climate of the league. There's no excusing the subsequent ejection of Stephen Jackson, because it reinforces the notion that the Warriors can't control their emotions. As much as coach Don Nelson enjoys the bottom line -- back to Oakland for Games 3 and 4 with the series tied -- he can't savor the prospect of his best, toughest players having to curtail their basic nature.
The bothersome part about all this, and it's been a problem since the start of the season, is the NBA's almost paranoid reaction to controversy. All of a sudden, players couldn't conspicuously gripe about calls without the risk of ejection. At first there seemed to be a double standard, star players being allowed to vent a little, but now it's Miss Manners time for everybody. Just the other day, at the close of the regular season, Tim Duncan committed the crime of excessive laughter. Joey Crawford, close to a legend in the world of officiating, drew what appears to be a permanent suspension for old-school intolerance.
Davis, who had been called for a technical earlier in the game, earned his sentence for clapping, in derision, for some 15 seconds until referee Bennett Salvatore couldn't take it any more. It can't be long before a dirty look sends you straight to the locker room.