The NBA announced suspensions after the Joel Embiid vs. Karl-Anthony Towns fracas: two games for each, no sanctions for Ben Simmons or anyone else. This is shocking, even by the increasingly lenient standards of Adam Silver’s NBA.
The NBA doesn’t mind its stars fighting anymore
We have that and more in Friday’s NBA newsletter.
Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images
It’s shocking primarily because neither showed any particular remorse for the fight (quite the opposite) and escalated the conflict further on social media. Simmons not even getting a fine after apparently choking out Towns — the Sixers said he was attempting to be the peacemaker, and the NBA agreed after reviewing the tape — is pretty wild if you remember life under David Stern after Malice at the Palace.
I’m not complaining: it’s obviously a much better deal for fans to not have the best players in the league suspended. We want to see Embiid and Towns on the court. I always think back to the great overreaction of the Knicks-Nuggets brawl of 2006, where Jared Jeffries got four games without swinging on anyone because he tripped trying to chase down Carmelo Anthony. This paradigm is much better than the old one.
That said, there’s a reason the NBA started reacting the way it did in the mid-2000s: to correct for how out of hand some fights had gotten, culminating with Malice. You really hope something like that won’t happen again after the NBA eases up on penalties for minor on-court brawls.
Scores
Heat 106, Hawks 97
Nuggets 107, Pelicans 122
Spurs 97, Clippers 103
Schedule
All times ET. Games on League Pass unless otherwise noted.
Friday
Rockets at Nets, 7 p.m., ESPN
Cavaliers at Pacers, 7 p.m.
Bucks at Magic, 7 p.m.
Knicks at Celtics, 7:30 p.m.
Pistons at Bulls, 8 p.m.
Lakers at Mavericks, 9:30 p.m., ESPN
Jazz at Kings, 10 p.m.
Spurs at Warriors, 10:30 p.m.
Saturday
Pelicans at Thunder, 5 p.m.
Nets at Pistons, 7 p.m.
Nuggets at Magic, 7 p.m., NBA TV
Timberwolves at Wizards, 8 p.m.
Suns at Grizzlies, 8 p.m.
Raptors at Bucks, 8 p.m.
Hornets at Warriors, 8:30 p.m.
Sixers at Blazers, 10 p.m., NBA TV
Sunday
Bulls at Pacers, 5 p.m.
Rockets at Heat, 6 p.m.
Kings at Knicks, 6 p.m.
Lakers at Spurs, 7 p.m.
Mavericks at Cavaliers, 7:30 p.m.
Jazz at Clippers, 9 p.m.
Links
Kevin Durant just copped to the fact that the fight with Draymond Green last season did play a role in him eventually leaving. It seems like there wasn’t a single spark or inciting event, just a culmination of various factors. Interesting candor!
I wrote about the three routes the Warriors will choose from to play out the rest of the season. One of them involves trading Draymond Green in February.
Kendrick Nunn is performing quite well for the Heat and receiving lots of praise. It should also be noted that three years ago he plead guilty to battery after an altercation with a woman. We’re all still figuring out how to talk about players who have been accused of or admitted to abusing women. You can’t ignore the players. We can’t ignore Derrick Rose’s role in Detroit. But it seems important to provide context as well.
Bryan Curtis on Deadspin and the Mavening of sports journalism.
Brad Geiser hits the nail on the head with the Kings, a team I could not care less about and am not terribly disappointed in right now.
Not basketball but it is very heartening to hear that the World Cup created a real bump for the top women’s soccer league in the United States, and I’m so glad Sacramento is getting a team.
Hot Ones is so good. So is @LeagueFits.
I will never retract my Halloween candy draft picks, but I will probably waive Hershey’s Special Dark to pick up Red Vines off the waiver wire.
Be excellent to each other, my friends.
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