Francis says media coverage is race-biased, defends Isiah

He stuck up for his coach and his team, which is exactly what David Lee and the rest of the Knicks players did. I don't find anything wrong with that.

Honestly, what is so offensive about these comments:

What's better - Francis' response or George Karl's expletive-filled tirade?

 

No doubt.

I can't remember the last baseball brawl that was still being discussed five days later. I also can't remember the last brawl I've watched highlights of with other people where there was not a majority of people cheering it. You should've heard the bar I was at Saturday night when they kept airing the fight, people were loving it. I'm not saying it's right or that what happened on Saturday is something I want to see on a consistent basis in the NBA, I'm just so sick of the self-righteousness.

And George Karl is a hypocrite, plain and simple.

 

What would you think of a coach who inserted a player during a game in the final series of the year whose only job was to go out and try to bait the other team's best rebounder into getting ejected? Hmm?

 

francis did kind of leave out the NFL which is full of black players and I believe is more popular than all of the other 3 major sports. but whatever...everything is racist I guess.

 

Um, yeah it kinda is. He sent a guy in the game whose sole purpose was not to play basketball, but to try and bait Dennis Rodman into doing something stupid and get himself ejected. Since it was in the Finals of all places, I'd argue it was worse.

 

George Karl is a "coaching legend" in his own mind -- and I guess yours. If you think Francis is wrong for taking the high road in response to what is simply one of many unprofessional incidents in which Karl shoots his mouth off to reporters in order to state his case - I don't know waht to say other than that you're seeing things the way you want to see them.

Do you recall his nasty comments about Doc Rivers, you know, when Karl, a two-time journeyman failure coach himself, b****ed about black coaches (like Thomas, newly hired at Indiana at the time) getting jobs? Your hero T-mac certainly does. Do you know why he got fired from Milwaukee? His players got tired of his bullsh-t, so his response (while being obligated to serve out the most lucrative coaching contract in NBA history at the time) was to assault his players in the press until Milwaukee got sick of it and fired him (I didn't see him give back the $$$ though) - that's right out of the Larry Brown school btw.

But Francis wrong for sticking with his team? That's silly. Francis is no saint but if you're offended by his comments, it's pretty clear you've got some kind of agenda here.

 

Sticking up for one's coach does not mean you have to bring in the race issue.

What the heck is this comment:

Is he saying Karl would not have dared say it if the Knicks has another game in Denver? What a joke. What was he or the Knicks going to do? Play harder? Isn't that what a professional should do every time out?

 

That's a separate issue - and he's not the first person to cite it. But he's 100% right to cite the kind of hypocritical hysteria that follows every NBA shoving match (how many people were injured the other night?). Meanwhile as Kelly Dwyer pointed out - how many people know what Tank Johnson's been up to? Ricky Manning Jr.? Where's the outrage and hysteria there? Crickets chirp....chirp...chirp. (let me also be clear - while the NFL has a lot of black players - in no way, shape or form is it as associated with "blackness" for lack of a better word, in the way the NBA is. )

Now you're picking nits - but yeah, he's exactly right. You don't think Karl would be more restrained if another game (and the potential for more fights/suspensions) was on the schedule next week? It's classic George Karl - continue to take cheap shots throught the media nd pretend like you're the victim.

 

When was the last big fight in the NFL?

 

lol, u talking about Frank Brickowski? In the end he only managed to get himself ejected...

 

George Karl is not a great coach, he and Isiah Thomas are both
jerks in my book. Screw them both!

 

There are brawls that the Yankees had when Lou Pinella was manager that still get talked about. The brawl when Pedro threw Don Zimmer to the ground gets talked about every once in a while too. Francis notices the media coverage of things in the NBA more because he is involved in them. I don't even watch Hockey, but I know who Todd Bertuzzi is.

 

Todd Bertuzzi almost killed a man and was charged with a crime. Not even in the satellite parking area of the same ballpark.

Don Zimmer? That was pure comedy - and I don't recall the massive chorus of SHAME, HUMILIATION AND OUTRAGE frome the pundits following that that occurred here - and that was a playoff game. Nope, when the Red sox and yankees brawl and throw baseballs at people's head it's just chalked up to heated rivalry.

It just seems like the NBA is always the sport that has to REPENT and SAVE itself from the humiliation and shame. It's funny because NBA brawls are generally minor scuffles (with a few notable exceptions from years ago), nobody reported getting so much as a scratch last Saturday -not to mention people love to watch that stuff.

 

He has a point on Hockey though. Players fight on tv all the time and all they get is put into a penalty box.

 

Nolan Ryan and that idiot Robin Ventura. They talked about that for a while.

 

Yeah but he just said talking about it. He didn't say in what context. I agree that they weren't having a cow in the same way.

 

People talked about it and said it was awesome and hilarious that an old man beat a younger player up. You just don't see the same kind of public shaming and dishonor and hand holding that occurs in a basket-brawl - that's the point.

Here's an excerpt from a good article from a few years ago about this phenomenon on the Malice at the Palace brawl: