Empty the Bench

- Rules are rules are rules, and Amare Stoudemire and Boris Diaw broke them by “leaving the general vicinity of the bench” after Robert Horry hip-checked Steve Nash into the boards during the your favorite NHL teams Spurs/Suns game the other night. You *might* have heard by now that both were suspended for tonight’s monster Game 5 in Phoenix.

Forget the rules–this is total hogwash, and David Stern knows it. Nevermind the vitriolic thoughts of Suns fans right about now: Pounding the Rock (a Spurs blog) isn’t pleased about this situation either, and can’t believe his team have now been branded as “thugs:”

Whatever happened to “give the fans what they want?” Or “the customer is always right?” The NBA, thanks to an iron-clad interpretation of a rule nobody has ever liked, has appeased… who? Who’s happy about this? The Suns players, fans and coaches are understandably “disgusted.” As far as I know the Spurs have made no official comment on the situation. They’re not dumb enough to come out and say they agree with the decision and anything voiced to the contrary won’t be believed anyway.

The series is tainted and the indelible dye has been cast upon the post season. The only happy ending, the only way to clean this up is David casting down the Goliath and retaking his seemingly ill-gotten gains. No matter the outcome tonight, the Spurs will walk away losers.

- The cheese and whine plate is now empty over at Bright Side of the Sun, and now they’re resigned to good ol’ fashioned positivity. For the record, we’re rooting for the Suns to rise up and stick it to ‘em.

- Dan Patrick sat down today with The Most Hated Man in Phoenix, David Stern, for an interview on ESPN.com where Stern gets annoyed that *anyone*, much less Patrick, would question his judgement about the suspensions. The following was transcribed by poster “Hadeed Roller” on Ween’s message board:

Patrick: What I’m saying is, you have a great series, a marquee series do you want it to be decided on the…can you be fair to this situation—as the commissioner.

Stern: Ohhhhh, right, oh right. Therefore so depending on what will put the most fans watching the game and put the most money in our pockets we should bend our rules. Ok I’ll make that our second point, I’ll write that down.

Patrick: But commissioner, this series is going to be decided by Robert Horry’s hip-check on Steve Nash and you sit down…..

Stern: You know, I am going to wrestle with you, and you better stop that….It’s not being decided by that. It is being decided because two Phoenix Suns, who knew about the rule, forgot about it, couldn’t control themselves, and didn’t have coaches who could control them. And don’t you forget it….

- Anyone else catch Dee Brown’s reaction to that totally childish foul committed by Stephen Jackson last night late in the third quarter? Frustrated and feeling that inner dark side of the force bubbling up, SJax basically just turned around on defense and ran into Brown near half court. Some players may have bounced up and gotten in his face, but Brown just rolled over and did a few pushups. Hilarious.

- Yep, I think it’s become crystal clear that re-upping Baron Davis this summer would be a smart move for the Golden State Warriors. He still has two years left on the six-year, $84 million deal inked with the Hornets back in ‘03, but can opt out next summer. He says he wants to stay, Chris Mullin, so put that contract in front of him at 12:01am, July 1, before he has a chance to reconsider.

- Hoops Addict has their latest NBA playoffs podcast up. I’m sincerely hoping that their discussion about “how Billups will match-up against Larry Hughes in the Conference Finals” doesn’t jinx Detroit.

- The Orlando Magic Blog seem to think bringing in Vince Carter is a good idea this summer when he becomes a free agent. God help any team that’s thinking about forking over a max- or near-max deal for VC’s services.

- Remember Keon Clark? 13th overall pick of the 1998 NBA Draft, overly skinny, all kinds of legal trouble that helped quietly pave his way out of the league in ‘04? He’s facing five years in prison “thanks” to drug possession, driving under the influence, and not owning a firearms permit for his handgun. Dude is still only 32 years old.

- The Cobra Brigade is all kinds of fired up about Game 6 at the United Center Thursday night. With their team stealing the momentum from the Pistons in this series, they definitely have a right to be psyched. Points, too, for resisting the urge to take potshots at the Pistons by still referring to them as a “championship-caliber team.” The Bulls look like they’re turning into one, too.

- Chris Webber, called out for his Houdini act lately as the starting center for Detroit: “There is no way a five-time All-star with the kind of numbers he has posted throughout his career should go two quarters, let alone two games, without scoring a single point. Webber snapped out of his shooting funk with nine points last night, but that’s not enough. It looks as though his mind understands where he needs to be, but his body can’t make it happen.”

- A day late, but TNT’s “Inside the NBA” studio show Monday night was one of its best. Nevermind that Shaquille O’Neal’s guest appearance actually detracted from the analysis segments of the broadcast. We had Michael Finley smartassing to Craig Sager about the Horry flagrant-2, after which Charles Barkley suggested their poorly-dressed sideline reporter could be really, really annoying. We had two, ahem, “happy” German contortionists who performed at halftime professing their attraction for Big Chuck. And at the very end, those of us who stayed up late were rewarded with Kenny Smith challenging Shaq to make two out of three free throws on the set. If he made them, big buckets of water would be dumped on Smith, Barkley, and EJ. If he missed, he’d owe $1,000 to all three of their favorite charities. Of course, he missed the first two to the delight of Kenny, who then challenged him to double or nothing. You don’t need me to tell you that he missed ‘em both again.