Clay Travis has a nice spin on why the recent brawl between New York Knicks and Denver Nuggets is all about race. Whether you believe Travis or not, there’s one point you cannot dispute.
Isiah Thomas’ whining about run-up scores and poor sportsmanship on the part of the Nuggets [“Up 19 with a minute and a half to go, (Carmelo Anthony) and (Marcus) Camby really shouldn’t be in the game,” Thomas said in the post-brawl interview. “We had surrendered. (Those) guys shouldn’t even be in the game at that point.”] makes a mockery of competitive sport. This is the NBA, remember?
It’s laughable to hear Thomas and some of the Knicks player try to justify their actions. The flagrant foul should never have been committed regardless of how humiliating the defeat may be.
If this is an amateur game played on an abandoned basketball court by some young punks (like Nate Robinson, who is a hypocrite for complaining that the Nuggets were trying to show the Knicks up in a blowout game when he was the same guy who tried to show off but failed an embarrassing dunk against Cleveland Cavaliers – talk about having a cavalier attitude!), I wouldn’t mind if someone were to “kelong” (Singlish for deliberate losing a game) a bit. But we’re not here to watch Roger Federer give away two sets to a rank outsider just to make a rout more palatable.
If Thomas had an ounce of self-respect, he’d realize that there is only one person to blame for the Knicks’ woes and it isn’t George Karl for his squad rotation policy. And there will be no doubt who that person is.
Related post:
How competitive are you?
blessing in disguise for the nuggets – they got iverson!