He seemed to be doing exactly what Artest did in the Dallas game. The difference is that Nash's charge actually escalated the situation, whereas with Artest it merely could have escalated it.
The incident has been way overblown. No player should have been suspended. No punches were thrown. A bunch of pushing and Rafer with a lil slap to Steve Nash neck. No big deal.
I understand that it did escalate. But why wasn't Mcgrady suspended? That is the main point Nash makes. If they assumed he was an escalator, why was what Mcgrady did not?
Well, he should have just went straight to Barnes and separate him from the Rockets. But he didn't he went straight to Alston; As where Artest was trying to get Yao out of the Dallas Crowd.
Nash reacted to a skirmish 1/4th of the court away by running full speed into it. McGrady reacted to a man charging at him and his teammate by pushing him back. I think the NBA viewed Nash's reaction as more objectionable. Also, I think Nash was falling backwards before McGrady even touched him. I don't think there was a lot of contact there between them.
Haha I could not help it, this craked me up. The lady in the next cubicle had to ask why i'm laughing.
If Rafer hadn't drawn blood there mighn't have been any suspensions at all. IMO the Rockets are lucky he didn't get suspended for more games. It was a bone headed decision to go after Barnes anyway.
Kerr says Suns will appeal suspensions http://www.azcentral.com/sports/suns/articles/2008/11/14/20081114spt-kerrappeal.html Suns general manager Steve Kerr said the Suns will appeal the decision by the NBA to suspend forward Matt Barnes two games and guard Steve Nash one game. An appeal won't be heard in time to prevent Barnes or Nash from missing game action but it might save their fines, as well as Shaquille O'Neal's. Commissioner David Stern acts as arbiter for the appeal hearings. Kerr was also dismayed by the rulings, noting that Rafer Alston threw a left hook at Nash later in the fray. Kerr said he asked whether Nash's track record as a representative of the league and upstanding citizen was taken into account. He said Stern told him, "Hey, Rudy T (Tomjanovich) was a great guy too but we'd suspend him too if he ran across the court." "Everything stems from the Rudy incident (a 1977 game fight that Tomjanovich ran toward and had his face fractured by a Kermit Washington punch) and the Ron Artest incident (the 2005 Detroit-Indiana brawl in which Artest went after a fan in the stands)," Kerr said in relation to punishments for altercations. Kerr said he was also told by NBA executive vice president Stu Jackson that Barnes would have only received a flagrant foul, level two, had Alston not charged at him.
Really, the refs screwed up by not calling a flagrant foul immediately against Barnes. If they were on the ball, they could have prevented the whole thing.
http://www.azcentral.com/sports/suns/articles/2008/11/14/20081114sunssuspension-CR.html Wow nothing like home paper bias. We never get that, our papers attack our guys.
I like Alston and his hard charging attitude is great but these little flair ups are getting out of control Him against Sasha Vujacic during the 20th game of the streak and him against 2 S's 2 L's in game 22 not to mention criminal issues are over the top at this point.
