Commissioner Stern: B.S.
— December 18th, 2006, 6:04 pm by Chad | NBA
I’m calling B.S. on Commissioner Stern when he commented on Carmelo Anthony’s suspension. Yes, I agree that ‘Melo deserved a suspension, but suspending him longer than any other player involved in the fracas is ridiculous, especially when the whole mess was instigated by a hard foul at Coach Isiah Thomas’ direction.
“We judged him on his actions on the court, period,” Stern said. “And they deserved a harsh penalty.”
Bullshit. The fact is that ‘Melo is getting singled out for exceptional treatment because he is the best-known player involved. Stern is trying to send a message, and he’s using one of the league’s most visible (and admired) players to do it. Never mind that the mere fact that their leading scorer is getting suspended for any length of time already punishes the Nuggets disproportionately to the Knicks, who are terrible but staying afloat in a lousy conference. A 15-game suspension probably dooms the Nuggets to miss the playoffs in the West (unless they can still engineer a trade for Allen Iverson, but that seems unlikely). The Knicks might very well make the playoffs anyway.


