The Chris Moeller Archives

A Garden party

There is a tangible racial element to the uproar over the on-court brawl in Saturday night's New York Knicks/Denver Nuggets game. Saying so is not to excuse the players and coaches who played a role in the skirmish that spilled over into the first row of seats at Madison Square Garden (the greatest offense), but this type of brawling is still remarkably common in the other two major professional U.S. team sports, as well as in hockey and soccer. In hockey and football, the fans and the media immediately look the other way, primarily because the participants are so heavily armored for competition that they presumably can't inflict too much damage on each other, but how was this fight in the National Basketball Association any different than those in baseball that take place on at least a semi-monthly basis?

I contend that it's skin color. If two white players wrestle each other to the ground on the baseball diamond and begin to pummel one another, such as the Cubs' Kyle Farnsworth and the Reds' Paul Wilson did in 2003, it's viewed as old-fashioned hardball. The men may not be outrightly praised for what they've done, but it's an admired action by many for its consistency with competitive sporting principles and loyalty to team colors.

The punches thrown in NBA games, where most of the players are black, are never described in print or on broadcast as having been born of team loyalty, or as an only-slightly harmful by-product of admirable competitiveness (i.e. Robin Ventura and Nolan Ryan in baseball in 1992). They're viewed as the residue of "street thug" lifestyles being played out by the players on the court. Predominately white journalists and fans see immaturity and the long-arriving decline of a once-whiter, and -purer game. They see wild animals.

Speculation that Knicks coach Isiah Thomas, an African-American, ordered a hard foul on the Nuggets' Carmelo Anthony, another African-American, has helped to blow up the issue of team culpability, but how many "brushback pitch"-related brawls have been touched off in baseball by a manager's order. The Knicks/Nuggets fight may have involved an abnormally large number of players, but then again maybe it didn't. Baseball fights almost always involve the clearing of benches. It's an unwritten clubhouse rule that you join the fray and stick up for your side in such an instance. Pitchers in the outfield bullpens race in from more than 300 feet away to join the circus.

I applaud Commissioner David Stern's judgment, not for the length of the suspensions or the size of the fines issued, but for including the teams, themselves, in the penalties. The franchise general managers were fined $500,000 for the fight as well, for neglecting to teach players to avoid such circumstances, a rare attempt at encouraging corporate responsibility in today's America. "If you continue to employ employees who engage in these actions, your organization is going to have to pay a price, even beyond the suspensions that are involved here," he said.

This is an especially cogent decision if, indeed, the touchstone was a foul ordered by Thomas, who also serves as the Knicks' team president. The punishments should fit the crime, and ultimately I don't care if Carmelo Anthony gets a 15-game suspension, or just a slap on the wrist, but I refuse to categorize this as a "black eye" for professional basketball. Their participants should be allowed the same "spirit of competitiveness" benefit of the doubt that every other sport's athletes receives.

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Before today, I think I've only written about the NBA one other time in two years, but I would like to thank the "NBA Bloggers" group for inviting me to join their organization by e-mail last week. (I declined their offer, though, since I don't really follow the games.) You might guess that with that invitation this month, along with another successful TV Festival and an anonymous comment posted last week by the good people at ANUNREASONABLEMAN.COM, I'm just busting my buttons over the recent results of this blog as we surpass our 2nd anniversary. Just wait until I start outing gay celebrities. Then the sky's the limit.

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Moeller TV Listings 12/18/06-- Iowa Governor and Presidential-hopeful Tom Vilsack appears on "The Daily Show" tonight on Comedy Central. Vilsack won't be getting my vote in 2008 as he's a pawn of the Democratic Leadership Conference (actually he would have to be considered more than a pawn since he's currently the organization's president), but TV's always more fun when there's a chance they might mention your hometown.

posted by CM @ 1:42 PM