Holy Crap that's flippin hilarious...it came down that he was canceling his trip about 40 minutes before the suspensions were leaked and then released by the NBA...he made sure to get that done first...if that dude EVER shows up in the Suns arena again he will leave soaked in beer and covered with cotton candy and peanuts...if you heard the interview on d patrick today, Sterns an Idiot!!! one of the most defensive interviews i've ever heard...anyway, hopefully anger can be a huge motivator tonight...we'll see...

ABYUFAN wrote:

David Stern is a moron, but he ‘aint stupid. At least he's smart enough to cancel his previously arraigned visit to phoenix tonight. I imagine the scene went down like this:

Craig Thompson: Hello, Mr. Stern?

Stern: Yes?

CT: Thanks for taking my call...hey I hear you are planning on visiting Phoenix for tonight’s game?

Stern: Yes?

CT: You realize that you just suspended two people for not getting involved in an altercation?

Stern: Yes?

CT: Casual fans think you are fixing the series in the Spurs favor...by letting them be as dirty as they want to be, and not suspending their best players, but instead suspending two people from the Suns who don't knee people in the schnutz, or try to end their careers by blowing out an achilles?

Stern: And?

CT: Well, I started this TV network and screwed a bunch of BYU Fans from seeing their teams magical run...I went to present the trophy to their team and was bood by 65,000 fans.

Stern: Ouch! That hurt your feelings?

CT: I cried.

Stern: you mean, like Kyle Whittingham?

CT: exactly, only I didn't get to cop a feel of one of my player's kiesters beforehand....

Stern: Ouch...I should avoid Phoenix

CT: Like the plague...

<br><br>Post edited by: sunsfrk, at: 2007/05/16 17:18

It's hard for me to say but your right about the road being easier against the Suns...your record this year proves it and as we saw with the Golden State Dallas series, the regular season record against a team does matter...It would be a lot funner series to watch however...If the Suns can pull through this travishamockery, i still have to pick the Suns in 7...it would be a great series though...
kenj wrote:

I can't believe the way this came down. It looks like the league would prefer a Jazz vs Spurs over a Jazz vs the Suns. The reason is that they want to orchestrate the final. The Jazz won't play well in the finals with all of the rest of the nation. Even Charles stated many times, &quot; We didn't even show the Jazz this year. No one knows how good they are&quot;. Even he thought it a joke. I believe the Jazz will win hands down if they get to the final and I believe they will have an easier time with the Suns.

<br><br>Post edited by: sunsfrk, at: 2007/05/16 17:20

Here's a re-post of my view of the Duncan situation from the other thread:

One thing to keep in mind on the Duncan/Bowen ruling is the propensity to ignore things going on near the coaches box unless the altercation is taking place right there.

If the NBA suspended every player that stepped on the court to celebrate, yell at the officials, pump up their team, etc. every team would have ejections in every game. If coaches got technical fouls every time they stepped out of that box there would be 15 technical fouls shots per game.

The referees and the league lets players be expressive within the confines of their own bench, barring a severe altercation.

But it's one thing to take a step onto the court with an action happening 20 feet away and quite another to go rushing up the sidelines toward something that happened only five feet away, like Stoudamire and Diaw did.

And the truth of the matter is that Horry probably would've been suspended one game if Diaw and Stoudamire hadn't come onto the court. The arm to Raja Bell was purely reactionary to a guy getting in his face, which I think is clear to anyone who watches it with an open mind.

That's why I think the league didn't go after Baron Davis in the Golden State series, because nothing came of it. The Jazz just wanted to prove they could beat the Warriors and not sink to that level of play.

I could care less who wins this series, since I think either team will probably knock off the Jazz in six or seven games. It's just my opinion that people need to recognize these suspensions (or lack thereof) for what they are.

I agree with you Jared. I think the suspensions are justified. But if Stern is going to be so strict to the letter, than theoretically, Duncan should be suspended as well. Even if he was 20 feet away from the other incident and even if he didn't run up the sideline, he still left the bench and should be suspended. The only reason I could see that Stern would have for not suspending him and I suppose it could be a valid one is because when he left the bench, he did so in protest to a hard foul after which there was no altercation. I think the lettering of the law states that you're not allowed to leave the bench in the case of an altercation. So I guess he could paint it that way and be safe. It just seems like the Suns got the short end of the stick here and suspending Duncan may have been the prudent thing to do to make all things equitable. But, it looks, at least early on, that the Suns are going to give Stern the ultimate middle finger here anyway (there's still a lot of time left, though).

Jared Cowley

I think many neutral observers will find it quite plausible that Stern is simply the Spurs lap dog (OK that’s a little harsh.) But the Spurs regularly and overtly attack the Suns in an attempt to get a reaction out of them, its like an acknowledgment that they cannot beat the Suns straight up , so they try to do something to get a reaction out of the Suns, when one comes, Stern does just what they thought he would do.

The Spurs are weasels, and, obviously, the NBA would like the weasels to win it all.

The NBA had the perfect chance to address the weaselness of th eSpurs, and chose not to do so. They easily could have suspended Duncan or Bowen, but chose nto to, they just suspended a bit player, who, given who was suspended from the Suns, would probably not be needed anyway.

ABYUFAN wrote:

The Spurs are weasels, and, obviously, the NBA would like the weasels to win it all.

As a die hard Suns fan, I don't understand why the league would deliberately choose the Spurs over the Suns. It's not like San Antonio has never had a champion or contributes significant revenue to the league's bottom line.

The only theory I can come up with is that Bruce Bowen has naked pictures of Stern or something like that. As much as I want to, I can't buy a conspiracy theory here.