Friends of the Sportfellas
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Written by Rob Paden
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Monday, 18 December 2006 |
When you look up “sportsmanship” in the dictionary, you sure aren’t going to find many, if any, members of the Detroit Pistons squads from the late 80s and early 90s, affectionately know as the “Bad Boys.”
Yet somehow, Isiah Thomas expects us to frown on the actions of the Denver Nuggets, simply because his Knicks team got clowned at the Garden, and Thomas’ ordered hit on J.R. Smith sparked a brawl. Please, Isiah. Get a life. And a job you can handle.
By this afternoon, most everyone knows the punishments that have been handed out by NBA Commissioner David Stern. Fifteen games for NBA star, Carmelo Anthony. Ten each for J.R. Smith and Nate Robinson. A handful for also rans including Nene, Jared Jeffries, Jerome James, and the hitman himself, Mardy Collins. The organizations each took a half-mil shot to the pocketbooks as well.
But I ask, where in the hell is the hit to Isiah’s wallet for his role in this fiasco? As was typical during his days as Detroit’s point guard, Thomas let others do his dirty work and he simply becomes the mouthpiece for the situation, trying to deflect the blame and attention. I think it’s about time he’s held accountable for his actions on the court. And the disgusting product he engineers called the New York Knicks.
By all accounts, Isiah warned Melo that he “better not go in the lane” late in the Nuggets blowout win over the Knicks. During the melee, Thomas chastised the Nuggets bench about leaving starters in that late in a blowout. After the game, the Knicks front man questioned the Nuggets motives to the media, complete with nervous laughter. Hey Zeke, how about you quit bitching about the other guys and worry about your 9-17 basketball team. And I use that phrase loosely.
So let me get this straight. Isiah comes from a team full of goons in the Detroit Pistons Bad Boy era. He can’t get a grip on his overpaid hired help that we lovingly call the Knicks. Then he orders hard, intentional fouls in games where his team is too pathetic to even make it competitive. Sounds like sour grapes from a guy reaping his just desserts.
It appears to me that someone is in way over their head and doesn’t know how to handle a little adversity. Can’t take the heat, so to speak. Or the Celtics, Nets or Raptors. Just over a quarter of the way in to the season, Isiah’s laughable losers are 2.5 games back of division-leading (for lack of more accurate terms) Boston, who themselves are 3 games back…of .500!
$117M and you can’t put a better product than this garbage on the floor? And then you try to deflect attention from the organization’s ineptitude by going Tonya Harding on any team who puts it to you?
Bet you feel like Bird just stole your inbound pass again.
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