$%#! David Stern

Update: Phoenix lost the game, though they certainly give it their all. Now they need to win the last two games, a tall effort. In unrelated news, here’s hoping the Bucks win the upcoming lottery. Daddy needs a new pair of… Greg Oden or Kevin Durant.

Bill Simmons of ESPN has said it all more eloquently and completely than I could, or would want to. All of the 0.5 people who read my blog are probably not aware of the incident which occurred during the last Spurs - Suns game. So I will briefly go over it.

In the final half-minute of the game, the Suns had a lead and the ball. Steve Nash was dibbling in the back court up the sideline when Robert Horry hip checked him into the scorer’s table. Some of Nash’s teammates sitting on the bench at that time were naturally disturbed by these turn of events, seeing their MVP and friend flying into a table, so they took two steps towards him before remembering something and returning to the bench.

What they remembered was that there is an NBA rule that if any player leaves the bench during a fight or altercation, they will automatically be suspended for at least one game.

After the game the rule was mentioned in the media and the general reaction by everyone was that, well of course they wouldn’t be suspended for walking two feet. Alas, David Stern (appropriately named) and his minions stuck with the letter of the law and suspended the Suns second best (and arguably most dominate) player, and a key bench player who would normally back up the first, and by doing so they virtually ruined the series. The only way this series isn’t irrevocably ruined is if the Suns somehow win without the two players. Normally I like the Spurs (not so much at the moment), but a victory by them will be forever marred, and this series will always be remembered as the one that David Stern and Stu Jackson stole from the Suns, whether that’s a fair interpretation or not.