In hockey, brawling has become so essential to the sport that it spawned the joke of a thousand lounge acts: "I went to a fight and a hockey game broke out." In football, Tennessee Titan Albert Haynesworth stomped his cleat on the head of Cowboys center Andre Gurode last October, and the condemnation in the court of public opinion fell solely on Haynesworth's sorry shoulders. In baseball, when Chicago Cubs catcher Michael Barrett punched A.J. Pierzynski in the mouth this summer, the benches cleared, but it merited barely a mention in the media, more punch line than punch-out.
But in basketball, a fight gets decidedly different treatment. It's debated and discussed like the 1992 Los Angeles riots--with an overcaffeinated mix of condemnation and concern. The NBA has become the spittoon for every racial anxiety aslosh in Sportsworld...
Posted by jsmooth995 at December 21, 2006 12:14 AM
