Francis says media coverage is race-biased, defends Isiah

THIS YEAR
In the Miami Hurricanes-Florida International brawl a Miami player swung his helmet at another.
Likelihood of serious injury / killing power = Very High.

Albert Haynesworth stomping on Andre Gurodes face with his cleats.
Likelihood of serious injury = Happened

Here's a link of baseball brawls:
http://www.youtube.com/v/J76bIkrm41s

Highlights:
Mike Sweeney throwing his helmet at a pitcher
A minor league ball player kicking a catcher in the face right after a pitch.
The infamous Bert Campaneris bat throwing incident
Plus the many 95 MPH fastballs at the batters. Many times ordered from the dugout.

And we all heard stories about or seen some of the scenes from hockey of blood on the ice and throat slashes. I attended a hockey game the other night with 2 FIGHTS and not even a mention of them in the news later that night.

I'd rather MUCH face a Carmelo Anthony - Nate Robinson punch than ANY of those. The big response to the NBA brawls now stems from the brawl at the Palace and the Antonio Davis incident. Concerns for fan's safety, especially the ones paying for those expensive front row seats. And its 'street' image. Not it might not be racism like Francis said, but maybe he couldn't touch on exactly what the reasoning is for why the coverage gets so magnified.

If George Karl needs to take responsibility for his players being immature hotheads acting unsportsmanlike then Isiah needs to do the same. The Knicks players are "standing by their coach" and doing what they're told to do and getting credit for it. Shouldnt maybe JR Smith and Carmelo get praised for doing what their coach put em out their to do? They stood by their coach and took up for their team the same way the Knicks did. I guess sympathy goes toward the struggling team getting shown up though...The players deserve suspensions but I put much much less blame on them and more on the coaches for their untactful strategies settling scores on their unspoken rivalry. Those guys deserve fines and suspensions just the same. Karl even more for his outright hypocrisy.

 

Hockey players have sticks.
Baseball players have bats.
I'd say that it's more dangerous to be out there.

 

In regards to media coverage of fights, bad publicity, etc. I believe it's the NBA front office/ David Stern which encourages the coverage. They do this by being the only league to try to police their players on and off the court. Stern knows his corporate boxes that are empty but paid for are paid for with white boy money. He doesn't want to deal with the news reports of another Artest situation or the rep of a team like the "JailBlazers" were. If this was really a purely racist move I would think the front office would encourage these guys beating the heck out of one another. More press, more injuries, more kid appeal. It's the corporate dollars talking. Same reason for the dress code.- TV5

 

Frank Deford agrees that race is a factor.