By
Mark SandritterThe Phoenix Suns-San Antonio Spurs game five lost some muster over the last 24 hours with the announcement of one game suspensions for Suns C Amare Stoudemire and F Boris Diaw as well as the two game suspension of Spurs F Robert Horry. There is little doubt the Suns will suffer on the court with the loss of a combined 30 ppg, however based on the rule in place the league had to make this move.
The NBA put in a rule stating any player who leaves the
bench during an altercation will be subject to a one game suspension.
Although their intentions can be disputed, Stoudemire and Diaw did in fact
leave the vicinity of the bench. Despite an established precedent on the
issue, the NBA has come under much scrutiny as of late. Executive Vice
President Stu Jackson downplayed any motive of the league office saying
instead a rule is a rule.
“At the league office we don’t take any pride in making
these decisions, it’s unfortunate but it is the correct decision,”
The suspensions, however, are clearly not beneficial for the Suns or the NBA in general. To take key players out of a playoff game for an incident as petty as just leaving the bench area seems rash. It is an issue that could be addressed in the off-season but here are two simple proposals that could eliminate future similar situations.
No Contact Rule
The current rule in place is good in principle but needs to be tweaked slightly to avoid similar problems. The easy fix would be to keep the current rule in place but modify it so a suspension is only issued if a player leaves the bench then makes contact with a player or coach from the opposing team. This would allow players to react naturally and assist their teammates but without escalating the altercation. To effectively modify it, increase the suspension if contact is made from one to two games. Take the game four incident for example. Nash goes down, Stoudemire and Diaw both come off the bench and are restrained by coaches without contacting any member of the Spurs. Horry is suspended for the foul and because no Sun came off the bench and contacted a Spur no suspensions are issued.
Game Ejection
Another solution to solve the problem would be to take the power out of the league office’s hands and put it in the game referee’s hands. After any incident in game allow the referees to review a replay and at their discretion eject any player who left the bench vicinity for the remainder of the game. This would accomplish two things. First, it would still punish those players who leave the bench. Second, the punishment would be more fitting as it would only cost the player the remainder of the game. With a number of these types of incidents happening late in games when emotions and frustrations run high, a player would not lose an entire game for an incident that occurred after the outcome was decided. Horry’s foul on Nash game in the final minute of the game, the referees could easily review the tape determine that Diaw and Stoudemire left the bench and eject them for the remainder of the game.
Either way the NBA needs to address this issue in the off-season, they need the focus on the NBA to be on the floor rather then what comes from the league office.