Go Spurs!

I'm not a big NBA fan normally - I'm more into the college game, and the NBA season and playoffs are just too long. So I only get interested after March Madness is over, and then only while the Mavericks are in.

So obviously, as a Dallas fan...after the Golden State debacle...I'm not very much into the NBA right now.

But I do watch various sports shows, and there's been a lot of talk about how the Suns got jobbed by commissioner David Stern. The story: the Suns' best player, point guard Steve Nash, gets taken out by a blatent hip check by one of the Spurs' bench players, Robert Orrey. Two Suns, including another key player, Amare Stoudemire, get off the bench and come onto the floor, where they have to be warned by coaches and refs to stay back. This is a violation of a zero-tolerance NBA rule, and so Stern suspends both Suns for one game. The Spurs' player is also suspended, but the Suns obviously take a much bigger hit here.

They go on to lose the next two games and are eliminated.

This ruling by Stern leaves a bad taste in a lot of commenters mouths. Tony Kornheiser has said he has just lost all interest in the playoffs specifically because of this ruling. Not because he hates the Spurs, but just that it seems unfair.

Well - he's wrong. Sort of.

These guys knew the rule existed - especially after the nasty near-riot that occurred in Detroit a while back. When they got off the bench, they incurred a penalty (which I don't think Stern had a lot of leeway in enforcing). Is it unfair? Yes - but not because of the way Stern ruled. It's because of the rule in the first place. The penalty was overly harsh for the act committed, especially compared to Orrey's original act. But it was the rule.

Sam Smith has had some odd comments on this matter. He was seemingly complaining about the star system in the NBA - where big names get preferential treatment from refs. But then he simultaneously complains that the penalty robbed the series of any validity. What he is asking for, in effect, is star treatment - Stoudamire is too important, so let's relax the rule for him, because the fans want it.

You can't have it both ways.

The other things is the stupidity of zero-tolerance rules. This occurs in all aspects of life these days, especially for stupid school rules (like being sent to suspension because of some aspirin in a backpack, or because a tire iron is locked in a trunk). Well, guess what - here is another place where it fails. If Stern had leeway available, he could have made a sensible ruling; but instead, the rule says "suspend them" and so he does.

The next result of all this: I'm rooting for the Spurs.

Not because I like the Spurs - as a Mavs fan, I don't. But a Spurs win will put the maximum bad taste in everyone's mouth over this, since they have the stigma on them from the Suns series. So let's have the Spurs win, and maybe some changes for the better will come about next season.

But I'm still not watching this year.