NBA cracking down on unexpected outbreak of on-court violence

 

LeBron James is missing one game.

Markieff Morris is missing his eighth, with no end in sight.

Those two things are more connected than some might realize.

By suspending James for Tuesday night’s game against New York — the Los Angeles Lakers’ lone visit to Madison Square Garden this season — over his role in an incident in Detroit on Sunday, the NBA sent a very loud, very clear message to anyone who might want to partake in future on-court dustups.

Enough is enough.

Sunday night’s mess in Detroit — the second significant on-court fracas in the NBA this season — earned James the first suspension of his 19-year career, plus got the Pistons’ Isaiah Stewart a two-game suspension on top of the eight stitches that were needed to close a gash in his head.

He felt like he got a cheap shot across his brow,” Pistons coach Dwane Casey said. “On the street, it’d be a different story.”

Maybe so. But the NBA isn’t played on the street and the league doesn’t want anything like that happening on its watch. So, after two very ugly incidents separated by only a couple of weeks, the NBA decided to hit back by sitting down its biggest nam

James was ejected for throwing the elbow that turned the scuffle into a melee. The NBA had options about what other sanctioning was needed. There was precedent for just fining James, as has been the case in some similar situations. But the league evidently thought that wouldn’t be enough and went with the suspension, for a nationally televised game in arguably the world’s most famous aren

Fans will clearly see his nonattendance. 

Furthermore, NBA players will too. In case James can be suspended, anyone can be suspended. 

Furthermore, that message ought to resound boisterously at a few impending games in the following not many days — a Pistons-Lakers rematch in Los Angeles on Sunday, a game that both James and Stewart will be qualified to play in, and Denver's outing to Miami on Monday. 

Chunks Heat II will be the rematch of a game on Nov. 8, defaced in the last minutes by Morris enthusiastically fouling ruling MVP Nikola Jokic of Denver and Jokic reacting with a hard lower arm into Morris' back. The power of Jokic's hit was sufficient to send Miami's 245-pound forward staggering. Morris — by and large thought to be one of the association's troublemakers — was in self-evident and prompt torment.

Jokic was suspended for one game. Morris hasn’t played since, and the Heat have given no indication that he’s even remotely close to returning. Of all the principal players in these two on-court incidents, with all due respect to Jokic and James combining to lose about a half-million dollars in salary and Stewart being bloodied up, nobody has come away with a worse fate than Morris. He can’t play and the Heat have missed him.

By the time the Nuggets visit the Heat on Monday, Morris’ absence will be up to 11 games. And counting.

It could be a circus Monday night in Miami, which, of course, is exactly what the NBA does not want.

Jokic’s two brothers have tickets to the game. They’re quite recognizable and easily excitable, as evidenced by some of their past antics during games. Their infamous Twitter account was short-lived, and it’s reasonable to say the league didn’t find the war of words entertaining between the Jokic brothers and Markieff Morris’ twin brother Marcus Morris of the Los Angeles Clipper

And don’t forget that Heat forward Jimmy Butler was fined and, according to the Denver Post, yelled down the hallway separating the two locker rooms postgame to tell Nuggets players that they know where Miami’s bus was parked, presumably in case anybody wanted to stop by and discuss matters further.

The NBA cannot be happy that there’s going to be so much attention on those two games, because that attention is there for the wrong reasons.

The association additionally can't be glad that the episode in Detroit on Sunday night attracted clear equals to the notorious "Malevolence at the Palace" skirmish in Auburn Hills, Michigan in 2004, when a cup was thrown from the stands and set off maybe the most exceedingly awful fight in U.S. sports history when individuals from the Pistons and Indiana Pacers went into the group. 

James dislike the suspension, nor will the Lakers. What's more, it very well may be contended he didn't really merit one, all things considered.

RELATED QUERIES

lebron james

isaiah stewart

lakers vs pistons

lakers vs knicks

raptors vs warriors

detroit pistons

pistons

knicks vs bulls

anthony davis

cade cunningham

carmelo anthony

ball state football

heat vs pistons

nuggets vs suns

pistons vs lakers

oregon basketball

julius randle

western michigan football

northern illinois football

virginia basketball

lakers pistons

rj barrett

lakers pistons fight

pistons lakers fight

evan fournier