Sunday, January 22, 2006

Reacting on Instinct

Antonio Davis, of the New York Knicks, got suspended by the NBA for 5 games this past week. His crime was running into the stands during a game which is a definite no no and a very worrying sight for NBA officials especially after the whole Ron Artest debacle at the Palace of Auburn Hills last year.

Image hosting by PhotobucketBut lets look at why Mr Davis ran into the stands. Apparently Davis was running to the aid of his wife Kendra who was up there watching the game. She was in an argument with another fan and from where Antonio was standing on the sidelines of the game it appeared as if a physical altercation was about to take place or his wife was being threatened. Davis ran to his wife's assistance and things de-escalated as security arrived and removed the offending fan. I'm guessing they also de-escalated because no average size fan is ready to scrap with anyone who can call a 6'10" 200+ big black dude to support them in a battle.

Anyway the fan says he wasn't threatening Mrs Davis and she was the one who hit him so he is demanding an apology and is actually suing the couple as well.

Ok its probably going to get more news coverage than it deserves and who knows what the actual truth is. Maybe its somewhere in between Davis' claim and the dude's claim. Davis however has been suspended for five games without pay which is actually a pretty lenient sentence in the NBA for his "crime".

Ok as an aside let me just say I'm not a big Antonio Davis fan. He got big cash in Toronto a few years back, then made a jackass of himself with comments saying he doesn't want to play here because amongst other things he doesn't like his family being in Canada because our schools teach his kids strange things like the metric system. Comments like that showed me homeboy was kinda dumb.

So he was traded away from the Raptors as all spoilt pouting petulant child-like players are eventually (that means you Vince) but I just found his attitude and effort, after his silly comments, really fell off and he put in a half assed effort at best for the Toronto team his last year here.

Anyway this is not about my liking him or not. I understand him being suspended as the NBA rules leave no grey areas for interpretation. He broke the rules, he was punished. However the question is are the rules right?

I just think the NBA rules don't follow a lot of common sense. Why? 9 Times out of 10 any man seeing his wife or another family member in that situation will respond by running to their assistance. Your brother staring down two bullies, you got his back, some jerk messing with your parents you are in there ready to scrap. That's not true?

Is only if the person involved is somebody like Aunt Gertrude second boy that still owe ya money, Cousin Steve that tief all ya matchbox cars from ya when ya was a lil boy or ya inlaws or somebody so that ya might decide I aint getting involved in that but otherwise the average guy is looking to go and support whoever in his family he perceives to be in need of assistance.

Another similarly silly NBA rule is the no tolerance one that says if your teammate gets into a scrap on the floor you cant get off the bench and get involved. In fact if a player takes one step onto the court he is automatically suspended at least one game so anytime some altercation occurs and players on the bench stand up you normally see one or two of the assistant coaches trying to push them back to their seats so they wont violate this rule.

Ok these are your teammates involved in a battle on the court. I'm not arguing for the right for a player in such a situation to run out there and start a full out fist of fury, throwing bows, melee but these are the dudes you spend 7-8 months a year playing with, traveling with, hanging out with becoming a team sometimes even a family. These are your boys! And you are not allowed to even take one step onto the floor when they are in potential trouble? Come on now! Instinct alone will get you up off the bench and taking that step to where the incident is occurring so it seems silly to me to punish someone for that. Zero tolerance gone wrong in my opinion. I mean the players are men not robots, instinct will move them to respond.

Ok so the argument is that the folks getting up from the bench will escalate the altercation which is possible but maybe some of them might be going to intervene to try to pull the combatants apart and cool things down. You could argue that too.

Oh well, NBA commish David Stern knows best. I'm just saying humans have certain instincts to respond .... react to certain situations. Yes human instinct can be wrong but what does it say when right is considered sitting back passively and watching as your family or friends are involved in a situation while wrong is considered going to their assistance.

And no I'm not crying boo hoo for Mr Davis and his 5 game suspension which costs him 700Gs in lost salary (thats 140,000 per game, or 2916 dollars per minute damn!!) which shows you how ridiculously paid he is. I just think the principle behind the rules may be slightly flawed.

19 comments:

Radmila said...

Ok...I'm not big on understanding the ins and outs of basketball, but I do know that large organizations like the NBA do what they can to protect themselves form litigious freeloaders.
It would not be unthinkable for some a-hole to provoke Davis' wife into assaulting him/her and then suing for big bucks..and then suing the venue for not securing his/her safety while 'enjoying the game'.
There are many, many people like that in the the world.
And with a couple of big payouts, other cons will do it too.
I imagine that the NBA wants to make sure that neither they nor their players get caught up in fake accusations and shake downs by idiots.

Deelze said...

I would have done the same thing if I was in his position!

He instinct was to protect his wife! Not paying him for that to me is ludicrous.....

The NBA in a whole to me is bare shite! That is at time. I agree with radmila 100%!

bitchdoctrine said...

Honestly, I see the Sternbot as a huge prick. He's been trying to lighten up the league's image to placate the white season ticket holders. Please.

Zero-tolerance is not the right way to go, because the world is not black and white. There has to be a gray area because each situation will be different. If I was in Antonio position, I would have jumped in the stands too.

However, since he is the Player's president, he should look into a family/friends section that has security. American fans are nuts, and a situation like that can happen again easily.

Abeni said...

Understandable reaction and that's probly why he got a relatively light fine.I guess family security will get more attention now

Anonymous said...

1st of all... metric system is used by majority people living on this earth 'n if he said it was strange to his kids... uhmm.. i'm sorry i have to agree... he is dumb

i dunno... some people make the rules without even considering anything else. what they see is just black and white, no grays in between.... but maybe you're right. considering the 'size' of these players, nba is trying to 'protect' the fans... he he he...

Scratchie said...

I guess they make the rules to protect themselves. That doesn't mean they make sense.

nahmix said...

i saw the clip of the incident at least 100 times on the news and as far as i can tell the fan was arguing with Davis'wife. it didn't appear to be life threatening, but i can understand why he'd be fearful, but hop into the stands like that...NOT CALLED FOR. if his wife felt threatened, i'm sure she had access to security. davis should have just gone to the sidelines and requested that security look into the situation. on the flip, the cameras caught his wife telling arguing back the fan about a call as if she was upset that the guy disagreed with her...I mean WTF? No I don't think davis needed a 5-game suspension. They could have just slapped with a fine and called it a day, but now this fan is suing for $1 mil...so you know what this is really about, but yeah i think the nba has some work to do with it's policies.

Miz JJ said...

Antonio Davis' wife is know as a bit of a hot head (she's bat shit crazy). I bet Davis went into the stands to make sure she start a riot. However, the security at NBA games is lax at best, which has always been a problem. That and all the booze they serve.

Rev Island said...

Well Now that the NFL is coming to its climax, I will have to watch some basketball. I agree with the other person above that AD did not need to go up into the stands.

ShellyP said...

A rule is usually made because before the rule something bad happened. To prevent it from happening again the rule was put into place. They're made because of stupid people and unfortunately everyone has to adhere to them.

Anonymous said...

Jdid- The last time a player(s) went into the stand it turned out badly. I admit as a die hard fan of the game I was embarrassed. This situation is different. Perhaps there was a better way to handle this. But these people are human too. If you saw your wife, mother or any person that you care about being threatened, you react from emotion. You aren't thinking about the money. Not then anyway. The commission I agree has these rules in place to protect not only the players but the general public as well. It may not be the best way to curb this "crime" but then again we don't want players running up in the stands to beat crazy fans senseless either.

princessdominique said...

This is a manly post :( a sistuh is clueless...

Anonymous said...

I totally agree with you. There is no way that my husband, ex or otherwise, would stand idly by and wait for security to respond to something he perceives as a threat to me. Never. Just wouldn't happen. *tapping security* "Umm... when you get a minute, could you go up in the stands and save my wife from that dude that appears to be threatening her? Yeah, see that one right there in the black shirt... no no, not that one, the one one row up... yes, yes, her... " GET THE F*CK OUTTA HERE. I mean it makes no sense. While I understand the rationale for such rules there are extenuating circumstances... and in my opinion this was one. He didn't TOUCH dude, he just went up there to see what was going on and to let everyone know, "Hey, if you got beef with her, you got it with me... now, do we STILL have a problem?"

Unknown said...

I agree that some of the rules are somwhat stupid. But I guess they made some of the rules to avoid law suits, sice you can get sued for every and anything in the US.

Anonymous said...

Antonio definitely did the right thing. He felt as if his wife's life might have been in danger, and he reacted the way any husband who is concerned for his wife's well-being would.

brooklyn babe said...

Got to protect yo' kneck, and your boo!

Inside Man said...

I think Antonio did the right thing, but after watching the footage his wife looked to be the instigator in the situation.

Brotha Buck said...

I missed all this. I've been out of whack lately.

Mad Bull said...

I think he should have stayed on the court and beaned the guy with the basketball... then he could have claimed it was an accident. ;-)
But you're right, I would have gone to my wife's assistance too...