Knicks-Nuggets Brawl
11 Comments December 18, 2006 5788 Views
With Denver up by about twenty points and with less than two minutes left in the ball game, Knicks rookie Mardy Collins prevented a J.R. Smith fastbreak and a possible dunk by fouling him hard, grabbing him around the neck with both arms. This started the ugly brawl in Madison Square Garden and resulted in 10 players getting ejected.
The ejected players were Denver’s Carmelo Anthony, Marcus Camby, Anthony Miller, Eduardo Najera, J.R. Smith and New York’s Mardy Collins, Channing Frye, Jared Jeffries, David Lee and Nate Robinson.
Below is a video clip of what happened. You can actually hear the punch thrown by Carmelo Anthony as it hits Mardy Collins in the face.
This is sad coz a lot of kids watch this game live in the stadium and others on TV. A lot of these kids look up to these players as role models and idols. Carmelo Anthony together with Lebron James and Dwyane Wade are considered as franchise players and the future of the league. However, with this incident, Anthony has left a permanent stigma on his young career. People would always remember him for that sucker punch on Mardy Collins.
Carmelo Anthony’s statement about his actions:
“Last night’s altercation with the Knicks escalated further than it should have. I take full responsibility for my actions in the matter. In the heat of the moment I let my emotions get the best of me. I apologize to the fans, the Denver Nuggets, the NBA, my mother, and my family for the embarrassment I have caused them. I ask you all for your forgiveness.
I also want to make a personal apology to Mardy Collins and his family. My actions were inexcusable, and I am sorry for making this an even more embarrassing situation.
What makes this all the more painful is that this was one of the most important weeks of my life. I just realized one of my biggest dreams when we opened the Youth Center in Baltimore that bares (sic) my name. To see the community excited and hundreds of kids smiling was an incredible feeling. Now the thought of thousands of kids seeing this incident on TV pains me. This is not the example I want to set.
It’s my hope that we work to move forward from this event, and never let something like this happen again.”
- Carmelo Anthony
Just today, the NBA Commissioner David Stern handed out the penalties. NBA leading scorer Carmelo Anthony who threw the now infamous sucker punch on Mardy Collins, got a 15 game suspension. Nate Robinson and J.R. Smith who threw punches at each other and scuffled on the floor each got a 10 game suspension. Mardy Collins who committed the flagrant 2 foul on J.R. Smith got 6 games. Other players who got suspended were Jared Jeffries - 4 games, Knicks Jerome James & Denver’s Nene both a game each for leaving the bench. David Stern also fined both organizations, the Denver Nuggets and New York Knicks $500,000 each.
These penalties show that the league is serious about zero tolerance on fights and brawls or anything that could destroy the image of the NBA. However, basketball is a contact sport and when tempers flare, players tend to forget and lose control. I’m sure that this won’t be the last fight or brawl we’ll see in the NBA.
Photo source: ESPN.com; Video: Google
(2 votes, average: 5 out of 5)
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Rudy Tomjanovich redux.
Well, we haven’t seen anything like this in PBA or the PBL in the recent months.
Oh wait, there’s always those La Salle vs Ateneo games in the UAAP.
PS
Is that a comment spam above?
@da man - not exactly. for the Rudy T. incident, “the punch” almost cost him his life and it eventually ended his NBA career. this time the only one that got hurt is Carmelo Anthony’s career.
@jhay - in recent months maybe but there was that one ugly incident when Robert Jaworski and one of his teammates kicking the referee coz they didn’t like his call.
that’s a legit comment. Kermit Washington punched Rudy Tomjanovich so hard that it crushed most of the bones in his face, knocked the top half of his skull out of alignment and caused spinal fluid to leak into his mouth.
You can read more about that story here.
I should have seen this game but I didn’t…What bad luck; it would have been fascinating although I ain’t for violence but you know, a brawl is a brawl. Carmelo Anthony should be lucky he didn’t had the Artest penalty and only got 15-game suspension. It could have been worse.
mga bata baka matuwa sa rambol at gayahin, sad.
cool ang google video, meron pala sila. di pa na ka block dito sa ofc, youtube kasi ban dito sa opisina. cool!
sa pilipinas sana ganun din ka serious kapag may nagkagulo sa court eh dapat panagutin din
Wham! Hahahahaha! This one’s a winnar!!!!
@Major Tom - yeah, too bad i missed it too! i also don’t advocate violence, but watching a brawl live on tv is somethin else. hehe
you’re right, Carmelo’s penalty is light considering what he did in that brawl. aside from the punch, he also held Nate Robinson in the neck, pulled and shoved Channing Frye to the floor. he should have been suspended for the rest of the season.
@iskoo - i know. kids shouldn’t see this. i see, buti na lang pala i used the video from Google instead of the one from YouTube. hehe
@ade - hehehe
Melo’s sucker punch was such a bi*ch move and his suspension was just a slap in the wrist if you ask me.
Fortunately Denver aquired Iverson which just may save their season. I am no longer a fan of Melo. That was a very bad cheap shot.
Lets not forget Nate Robinson. What a punk. All he does his showboat, miss dunks in games, and dance like a gangsta during a professsional NBA game. He makes the knicks look terrible.
@trench - haha..i agree with you on that. you can see him back-pedal faster than when he threw that punch. he should have gotten atleast 30 games for that.
Iverson has been the catalyst in the Nuggets offense and they’ve been winning since he joined ‘em.
Nate Robinson is indeed a punk. He aggravated the whole situation. The Knicks have been winning since this incident happened. Marbury has his game back and they’re playing more as a team.
Nate Robinson makes the Knicks look terrible? Well, of course he does but the only players who are actually worth their money in NY are David Lee and Channing Frye.
Die Isiah! Die!!!
@benj - I guess what Trench means by making them look terrible is his game antics like showboating and stuff. I agree with you about Channing Frye and David Lee. But I like David Lee better. He plays really hard every game. He defends very well, passes the ball, rebounds like a monster, etc. He’s a team player.
Isaiah Thomas only gets to be an NBA coach or manager because of his experience and credentials as a player. Hehe