I’m sure everyone has seen the footage by now; the flagrant foul, Nate “mini-50 Cent” Robinson instigating a fight, Carmelo Anthony throwing a vicious sucker punch and running away. NBA commissioner David Stern has never been one to let shit slide (even for JR Smith who had every right to do what he did). Yesterday the league handed out suspensions for the incident.
Carmelo Anthony, who also happens to be the league’s leading scorer and a cornerstone of the new generation, received 15 games. JR Smith and Nate Robinson received 10 games each, Mardy Collins, whose flagrant foul sparked the wick, got 6 games, Jared Jeffries got 4 and both Nene and Jerome James got a game for leaving the bench.
Both organizations were also fined $500,000. There has been a lot of speculation that Isiah Thomas ordered the foul as he was angry the Nuggets coach George Karl had kept 3 starters in late in the game despite being up 19 points. Karl also happens to be very close friends with Larry Brown, it wouldn’t be surprising if he was trying to make Isiah look bad. Nevertheless, Isiah did warn Carmelo to stay out of the paint late in the game. The NBA is investigating Isiah‘s role in the incident.
