Fighting in Pro Sports

[EzMoney]

Of the four major team sports in America, basketball has the least amount of fighting. The NHL sells fighting, promotes and glorifies it. Major League Baseball can't go two weeks without somebody rushing the mound to start a bench-clearing brawl, and suspensions are minimal. Pro football, in what seems almost an outgrowth of the mandatory contact, has its skirmishes and fights all the time. Basketball hasn't had a fight in two years.

So, fighting's okay in baseball but not basketball? Why? Fighting is cool for the NHL, but not the NBA? Why?

Because the NBA is the only one of those leagues that's perceived as being a "black league." The NFL is more than 60 percent black, but enough of its stars are white that you would never hear anybody, regardless of the percentages, refer to the NFL as a "black league." If black participation drops any more in Major League Baseball, it'll rival the overwhelmingly white NHL. I don't hear any great outcry for suspending pitchers or hitters for a meaningful number of games when there's a beanball war, even if the participants are men of color.

No, this fighting issue and the way it attaches itself to the players is the NBA's burden to bear. "Those thugs" are going to have to be more red-state friendly in order to sell seats, much less jerseys and shoes. NBA players are the most identifiable of professional athletes. They make the most money. They've got the most intimate relationship with the patrons. They've got the longest shelf life.

I'm not about to feel sorry for them because they're being held to what seems to me to be a different standard.

Eliminating the fighting is a very small price for these players to pay; still, let's see it for what it is. Stern has.

This latest episode at Madison Square Garden bears no resemblance to the Malice at the Palace because players didn't fight fans this time; they fought each other. But what the NBA has surely found in its research is that if the perception of the league and its players is going to improve, fighting cannot under any circumstances be a part of the product.

It's a shame that Carmelo Anthony, at the same time he took over the league lead in scoring and donated $1.5 million to keep a youth recreation facility open, has to now sit out 15 games. His public apology seemed sincere and his asking for forgiveness genuine. Perhaps it knocked the suspension down from 20 games or more. Either way, my bet is Anthony won't be involved in anything like this again. It cost him too much.

Actually, I found Anthony's cheap shot far less offensive than Terrell Owens's spitting in the face of the Atlanta Falcons' DeAngelo Hall on Saturday night. Yet, Owens wasn't suspended; he was only fined $35,000 and the outrage over his thuggish act quickly died out. The paying customers will tolerate almost anything from the preeminent NFL. But as the NBA has found out once again, professional basketball players operate on a much shorter leash, and if they have any sense of the sports and entertainment marketplace in America, they had better act like it.

[Beastoftheeast]

its apples to oranges. in hockey fighting was there from day one. carmello should be punished not on race but by his actions in his sport.

[Flip It]

um i understand what you say EzMoney but in a while u may find some people coming here talking bout u racist or sum shit, while they are the ones not opening up for the truth

[MFlip]

Unless you've played hockey or been around hockey for a large portion of your life you will not understand hockey fighting.

[Flip It]

Unless you've played hockey or been around hockey for a large portion of your life you will not understand hockey fighting.

Ok if you say so, you down for another round on PacificPoker?

[MFlip]

I hate that site. Their set up is horrible.