And here is another thing: Carmelo Anthony did not throw a sucker punch. He just didn't. The two guys were jawing, the Knicks player, Collins, was pretty much asking for it. And in this process, Carmelo punched him (well, in the way that NBA guys punch one another, which is always one of the most amusing aspects of NBA fights to me -- they throw punches like Johnny Damon trying to get a ball back to second from centerfield). No sucker punch. In any fight, someone is going to land the first blow. Now what he did that was disgraceful was to backpedal from the melee as soon as he threw that punch. That warranted the full 15 games as far as I am concerned.
In any case, what we have learned from all of this is that modern day sportswriters, the source of the latest round of mock outrage, have not been in enough fights. It makes me respect Will McDonough all the more, as in the late 1970s when he was the Patriots' beat writer, he punched out the Pats' starting All-Pro corner Ray Clayborn. As the legend has it (and when in doubt, print the legend) McDonough knocked Clayborn into the owner and the two tumbled into a clothes hamper, at which point the South Boston-bred sportswriter asked, "Do you want another dose?"
5 comments:
I agree with you on one point: big deal. It was a fight and they are going to happen. But Carmelo is a bitch. He wasn't even in on it and the whole thing had seemingly come to a standstill and then macho, gangsta-melo comes out of nowhere and throws the cheap shot. Bush league. I will also agree with you on the Johnny Damon analogy. Nice one.
Greg --
Carmelo was no hero, but it was not a sucker punch. That's my only point -- at some point ina situation like that, someone will throw a punch. A sucker punch is a completely unexpected, blindside punch. Say what you will, but that definition does not fit Carmelo's punch.
I'm already sick of this story.
dcat
Me too. I still think Carmelo is a bitch. He's disappointed completely since his arrival in the NBA.
Sadly this incident soured me on Melo. I liked him coming in to the league and liked him more after the summer as he clearly gave the best performabnce on the US team this summer and I thought he really gave a great effort there and it seemed to really spark his play this year. I'd say he had been a disappointment until this year, but this year he was playing like people expected him to since he came into the league. But that was a sad display. Whether one wants to term it a "sucker punch" or not, he clearly waited for a chance where he could get one punch in and then run away which is a cheap shot in any book. If you are going to punch (or really slap like he did) another dude in the face, you better be ready to throw down after that, not run away.
Yep.
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