Can’t We All Just Get Along?

Is it just me or does it seem like there have been more technical fouls, flagrant fouls and ejections/suspensions this year in the NBA playoffs than any other time in the history of all of sports? Okay, maybe I am exaggerating a little bit, but the plethora of physicality in the NBA playoffs between the Dallas Mavericks and Denver Nuggets AND the Los Angeles Lakers and the Houston Rockets, especially, has seemed particularly violent.

In a game that is supposed to be a ‘non-contact’ sport (yeah right) tempers and emotions are flaring and players are out of control. Are the referees being overly cautious or did they let the players get too out of control?

Its not only the players that are involved in all of the misconduct, Mark Cuban was apparently involved in an altercation with the family of Kenyan Martin during a recent Mavericks/Nuggets game. Fortunately, Cuban apologized to KMart and his family on his weblog yesterday. Its a little concerning that professional athletes who are at the top of their game in the playoff season, when every point and moment can change the game, are allowing their tempers to get the best of them, fouling and reacting in ways that are hurting their team. Not to mention the fact that tons of young athletes across the world are watching these players throw temper tantrums and elbows and looking up to these players as role models.

While I’ve never been in the moment and intensity of an NBA playoff game, I’ve experienced my share of intense moments, we all have. And we are all taught to react with ration and reserve, to not let the emotions of the moment overtake us. So is this outburst of fouls and ejections merely the expression of a repressed country that can’t take out its anger on anyone so it subconsciously asks its sports stars to do it?

I’ve seen a lot of news that’s been covering all of these fouls and ejections, but none of them have stopped to offer their opinion on why its happening, they merely dramatize and reshow every elbow and reaction, making the players that commit these plays seem more popular and gain more exposure, instead of commenting on how much those plays are hurting their teams in these important games.

The commissioner of the NBA ought to take a hard look at what’s happening in his NBA playoffs and find a better solution that ejecting players left and right for conduct that, while we in America pretend to be appalled it, we really love every minute of it. Something must be wrong.