Suns-Spurs suspensions

By now, you've surely seen Robert Horry's knockdown of Steve Nash the other night. If not, you can watch it next to this ESPN article about the suspensions.

Yesterday the NBA announced that Horry has been suspended for Games 5 and 6 of the Spurs' series with the Suns. Amare Stoudemire and Boris Diaw of the Suns were both suspended for one game (Game 5) for leaving the bench area during the scuffle that followed Horry's hit.
I don't like this.

First, suspensions during the playoffs just suck. I don't want the Suns to win at all, but I definitely don't want them to win because of an Horry suspension. I do want the Spurs to win, but not because Amare Stoudemire wasn't allowed to play.

Second, the suspensions affect the Suns a lot worse than they affect the Spurs, especially considering the seriousness of the offenses. Now, I do think Stoudemire and Diaw should have been suspended. Even I know you can't leave the bench when something like that is going on, and I'm not even in the NBA. It's the rule. It's a really dumb rule, and it's an outdated reactionary rule, but at least it's clear and, unlike perhaps the Tuck Rule, something you should expect players to know. If the two Suns hadn't been suspended, that would have been clear preferential treatment, which is something the NBA would never do during the playoffs (rolling my eyes).

Third, I think the suspension of Horry might be too harsh on its own, though by some standards it isn't. The first time I saw the hit, I was like, wow, that was brutal. But you watch it again and it's clear that Nash is twirling his arms and legs for no reason. The hit was uncalled for and unnecessary, but there's a lot of that in postseason basketball. It's not usually in the open court, but it happens.

It's just hard to compare suspensions because the NBA has gone so wacky lately. Think about Carmelo's punch earlier this season that cost him fifteen games. Was that seven and a half times worse than Horry's hit? Of course not. From a basketball standpoint, it wasn't even as bad as Horry's hit. I mean, Nash was a lot more likely to get hurt from flying through the air and landing on an ankle wrong or something than Mardy Collins was from a fallaway punch in the face. (I think avoiding injury/player safety should be the league's biggest concern in these situations.) But Carmelo's hit looked a lot worse, and the league responds more to the image than the actual play. That does make some sense, considering how many people saw the highlights but not the actual game.

Of course, regular season games aren't equivalent to playoff games. In a vacuum, I probably wouldn't have suspended Horry at all, though it would have been unfair to bench two Suns and no Spurs for that play. The good news for the Spurs is that Horry will back for a potential Game 7, where he will probably hit a series-winning three.

It's sort of a fine line for the NBA. They don't want fighting, or at least they don't want to give non-fans an excuse to brand all players as thugs, and yet they know conflict and competition are what sells. It's funny because I'm probably more interested in the series now that suspensions have been handed out, but the game tonight will probably be much worse than it would have been if Stoudemire and Diaw were playing. If I watch, and the Spurs win big in a snoozer, do I really want to keep watching? Probably not. And that's too bad for the league, because this could be the last good series of the playoffs.