KnicksNBA reviewing Knicks-Nuggets brawl
BY ALAN HAHN
Newsday Staff Writer
December 17, 2006, 10:33 PM EST
The fallout from Saturday night's brawl between the Knicks and Denver Nuggets at Madison Square Garden likely will be revealed today, when the NBA is expected to hand down suspensions to the players involved. Stu Jackson, the NBA's executive vice president of basketball operations, spent Sunday reviewing video of the fight and interviewing the key figures involved.
With the image-conscious league extremely sensitive to how this incident is bringing back memories of the ugly brawl that involved fans at The Palace of Auburn Hills on Nov. 19, 2004, it is expected that Jackson will dole out some heavy punishment.
"We will review the incident in its entirety," NBA spokesman Tim Frank said. "Until then, it would not be appropriate to comment. We do not have a timetable on when the decision will be reached."
The Knicks (9-17) host the Utah Jazz tonight at Madison Square Garden. They did not practice Sunday and neither coach Isiah Thomas nor any of the players were made available to the media.
The most prominent player involved in the brawl was Nuggets forward Carmelo Anthony, the NBA's leading scorer and one of the game's top young stars, who sucker-punched Knicks rookie Mardy Collins during the fracas. Anthony issued a statement last night apologizing for his actions in the fight.
"In the heat of the moment, I let my emotions get the best of me," he said in the statement. "My actions were inexcusable and I am sorry for making this an even more embarrassing situation."
The statement also said, "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."
Collins, who started the incident with his flagrant foul on Nuggets guard J.R. Smith, and Nate Robinson, who played an instigator role in the brawl, are expected to be disciplined by the league. But the most prominent member of the Knicks under scrutiny is Thomas. He may not have been involved in the fracas, which took place with 1:15 left in Denver's 123-100 win, but his actions before the fight raised serious questions.
Thomas asked Anthony why he still was in the game with the Nuggets ahead by 17 with 1:32 left. According to a report in the Denver Post, a Nuggets source said Anthony told Thomas, "We need this one." Denver (13-9) had lost consecutive games entering the Knicks game.
On video replay, Thomas can be seen warning Anthony, "Don't go to the hole."
It suggests that Thomas had premeditated a hard foul, but it does need to be pointed out that it wasn't as if he had his heavy hitters -- such as Kelvin Cato or Jerome James -- on the court. Collins, who was charged with a flagrant foul on Maceo Baston in Friday's loss in Indiana, was the only true bench player in the game.
But in his postgame address, Thomas continually deflected the blame onto Nuggets coach George Karl, who had five players on the floor -- Anthony, Smith, Marcus Camby, Andre Miller and Eduardo Najera -- who have started the most games for the Nuggets this season. Karl inserted Najera for backup guard Earl Boykins with 2:52 left.
"We had surrendered," Thomas said. "Those guys shouldn't have been in the game at that point in time."
Though he did have reserves Yakhouba Diawara, Reggie Evans and Linas Kleiza at the scorer's table just before the fight took place, there's little doubt that Karl, a Larry Brown loyalist, wanted to ensure that the Nuggets won big on the Garden floor. Was he trying to show up Thomas?
It was Karl last summer who criticized the Knicks for how the Brown situation was so bizarrely handled. "A good organization helps their coach through it instead of taking a confrontational position," Karl said during the Orlando pre-draft camp in June.
Thomas then confronted Karl at the Las Vegas summer league in July. "I just made the point that he should talk about his own team and quit talking about ours," Thomas said in early November. "I don't talk about the Denver Nuggets and he shouldn't talk about the New York Knicks."
A little over a month later, Tho.mas was talking about the Denver Nuggets. And it's not the first time this season that he has gone against his own advice.
After Steve Francis suffered an ankle sprain when he took a jump shot and landed on the foot of the Spurs' Bruce Bowen, who had extended his foot under Francis, Thomas was asked what he would do if a player did that to him. "I'd beat the -- -- out of somebody," Thomas said Nov. 10.
The next night, the Knicks played the Spurs in San Antonio, and when Bowen got his foot under Jamal Crawford during a jump shot, Thomas started screaming, "Next time he does that, break his -- -- foot!"
Thomas then got into a verbal altercation with Bowen, and Spurs coach Gregg Popovich -- another good friend of Brown's, by the way -- charged to midcourt, yelling at Thomas, "Don't talk to my players!"
