FanNation - The Republic of Sport

I am walking on a sidewalk along a busy street. This man is walking toward me and I feel awfully threatened by him. I decided to go on the offensive and pre-emptively strike this man. He suffers a broken nose.

Coincidentally, you were a few feet away from this incident. In no way did you participate in the altercation you just witnessed, but your curiosity and attention shifted your attention toward this little scrum. All you did was take a few steps closer to the incident, maybe said a word or two, then went on your business.

The police saw the whole thing happen to. They hail medical attention for the victim, arrest me and bring you in for questioning.

Two days later, authorities let me go without a fine or criminal charge. The victim is coming along just fine, health-wise. And when you just checked your mailbox this morning, there was a bill by the city police department -- it's a $250 fine for not ignoring the fight.

Certainly this is fair, right? You agree? Great! Thanks for taking the hit for me!

All joking aside,how is this any different than what transpired this week, with Lakers forward Trevor Ariza sending Portland guard Rudy Fernandez to the hospital while Lamar Odom was sent home as punishment.

If you follow the NBA with some regularity, you probably heard about what happened when the Lakers visited Portland on Monday night. It's the third quarter. Blazers leading by 28. Barring a miracle (a la Game 7 of the 1999 Western Conference Finals), the game's all but finished.

Fernandez was on a fast break, charging his basket with a relatively clear path for an easy two points. Next thing he knows, he is flying in the air and lands oddly in front of a few photographers. He was essentially thrown into that position by Ariza. It was a nasty play resulting in Fernandez being carried off the court in a stretcher before being transported to a local hospital.

In the ensuing scrum, which took place just a few feet away from the Lakers bench, Odom took a step or two toward the melee. At the time, Odom was not one of the five players on the floor.

Of course, Odom's actions are a no-no in the NBA. According to league rules, a player on the bench cannot leave the bench area whenever there is any sort of altercation during game action on the floor.

Now, I get the public policy of this rule. The last thing the league (or its fans) want is for a fight to be escalated due to additional people jumping into the frey. Clearly, it is easier for officials to control an incident when you have only 10 people to deal with, knowing full well they do not have to worry about any of the 14 players on the bench coming out of no where to make a bad situation worse.

Also, I get why the NBA enforced the rule on Odom. The league wants to send a message to its players -- do not, under any circumstances, leave the bench during an on-court scuffle.

The question is, is this a strict rule or an absolute rule? Is this something where we should focus on the spirit of the law instead of the letter of the law?

Sure, I'm all for enforcing rules. I don't blame Stu Jackson (aka NBA Fascist ... er, I mean, Enforcer) for suspending Odom. He clearly violated a league rule when he edged closer to the scrum involving Brandon Roy, Ariza, and a few others.

But what does it say about the integrity of law enforcement (or, in this case, rule enforcement) when the culprit of the whole situation - Ariza - is not punished? Was Odom really a threat to escalate the scrum into an all-out brawl?

Of course, if the league wants to be lenient on Ariza, fine. But then don't be all hard on Odom. Bottom line -- either punish both, or let both go.

That's like me socking some guy and having no criminal charges pressed against me but you being slammed with a fine just because you took a passive interest in what was going on right in front of you.

Such was the problem for Odom. Sure, the league had to punish him for breaking a rule. A rule is a rule. Unless it is changed, it must be enforced (so long as the enforcement fits the crime, of course).

But the NBA also claims to be strict on player safety. After all, isn't that why the "not-leaving-bench-during-fight" rule exist in the first place? If you are going to punish Odom for breaking a safety rule, how are you not going to punish Ariza for sending a player to the hospital? How is his hard foul going unpunished promoting player safety?

This is why Odom's suspension was a Catch-22. He should have been punished for violating a league rule. But how can Odom's suspension be justified when the very person who put him in a position to be suspended is not punished at all? (Merely giving Ariza a flagrant foul, which gives the opposing team two free-throws and possession, is not punishment enough).

Put in another way, there was nothing Odom did on Monday night that would have sent a player to the hospital. Yet, he gets the full brunt of the NBA's law enforcement arm -- all while Ariza not only gets to stick around, he gets to start the very next game (which was Wednesday night in Houston). Oh, did I mention Ariza sent someone to the hospital?

When the league (specifically, Jackson) enforces these rules, they have the benefit of hindsight. They can see what the final outcome of the entire situation is. If the referees made a judgment on the floor and ejected Odom on the spot, perhaps we can argue that Odom indeed was a threat to escalate the situation, therefore warranting an ejection and suspension.

Yet, Jackson and his cronies surely watched the play over and over again. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to observe that Odom posed no threat. Further, no one would have been up in arms had the league suspended Ariza. Any reasonable human being could make an argument that he was not playing the ball (which is the standard for determining whether a player should be suspended or not).

Bottom line, if the league wants to pride itself on enforcing the rules, then suspend both Ariza and Odom -- or let both go. Otherwise, the league is sending two different messages out to its players.

Then again, it isn't the first time the league is guilty of being inconsistent. (I am sure Suns fans remember Horry's hit on Nash during the playoffs all too well).