Back in 2006, when Twitter was in its infancy and not yet a factory for Stephen Curry highlights, vitriolic takes and the occasional joke (followed by someone explaining that joke), the Knicks and Nuggets engaged in a huge fight that resulted in 10 player ejections and later seven player suspensions, plus $500,000 fines for both organizations.
Emerging Nuggets star Carmelo Anthony earned the largest penalty, a 15-game suspension for one of the league's top scorers. It was difficult for Anthony to debate the ruling after a hard right hand landed on the face of Knicks forward Jared Jeffries.
MORE: Did Rajon Rondo actually spit on Chris Paul?
This scuffle took place only two years removed from the "Malice at the Palace," undoubtedly one of the darkest moments in league history. Then-commissioner David Stern knew he had to discourage any form of fighting, so he dropped a harsh sentence on everyone involved, including Anthony.
Fast forward to Saturday night in Los Angeles, where a Brandon Ingram shove to the back of James Harden sparked a brawl between the Rockets and Lakers. The real action started when Chris Paul threw his finger directly into Rajon Rondo's face after taking offense to Rondo's saliva. You know what happened after that.
NBA vice president Kiki Vandeweghe, the man in charge of handling these kinds of punishments, was in attendance at Staples Center witnessing everything first-hand. He acted quickly, handing down a four-game suspension for Ingram ($158,817 fine based on salary), three-game suspension for Rondo ($186,207) and two-game suspension for Paul ($491,781).
Anthony, who tried to play peacemaker this time around for the Rockets, is probably wondering if he can call Vandeweghe and commissioner Adam Silver about recouping some of those lost game checks from more than a decade ago.
“For (Chris Paul) to get two games is good,” said Carmelo Anthony, who wouldn’t have been surprised if the NBA punishment was harsher. Melo was suspended 15 games for throwing a punch in a game in 2006.
— Marc J. Spears (@MarcJSpearsESPN) October 22, 2018
The suspensions for Ingram, Rondo and Paul are truly surprising considering everything that took place between the lines Saturday. Consider this...
— Ingram deliberately shoved an unsuspecting Harden and appeared to size up an NBA official before he was removed from the fracas. He then re-inserted himself into the situation, throwing a wild punch that could have done serious damage had it connected.
Brandon Ingram on the suspension: “It was better than we expected. I’m happy it was only 4 (games). I have to control my emotions better.” He added that he apologized to his teammates.
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) October 22, 2018
— Rondo spit on a guy. That happened. He may claim he didn't do it intentionally because of some law of mouthguards we have yet to properly explain with next-generation physics, but it happened based on the video available to the league office. He turned the volume up by drilling Paul with a left-handed jab to the head.
— Paul responded after Rondo's slobber shot, poking Rondo near the eye and throwing a few punches of his own. Paul could contend he only responded when provoked by Rondo, which is a fair argument. But any time the president of the National Basketball Players Association is involved in this kind of incident, it's a bad look all around.
— Perhaps an underrated factor: visibility. This was not a Hawks-Bulls game on a local affiliate. There were members of the media from all over the world and a huge crowd of fans watching LeBron James' home debut. This is the last thing the NBA wants to see during a nationally televised contest between two marquee teams.
ESPN said last night's Lakers-Rockets game telecast drew a 2.5 overnight rating, the highest-rated NBA regular season game on ESPN since the Warriors 73rd win game two years ago (a 2.7 on April 13, 2016).
— Richard Deitsch (@richarddeitsch) October 21, 2018
Add all of these elements together, and it's tough to come to any other conclusion — the Rockets and Lakers got lucky. Silver and Vandeweghe could have set a precedent here and forced NBA players to second-guess themselves before escalating an altercation into an all-out brawl. That didn't happen.
Houston and Los Angeles haven't exactly been lighting the basketball world on fire to start the season, so the absences of key players will hurt. But they could be in much worse predicaments, with Ingram, Rondo or Paul sitting five, seven or even 10 games.
Just ask Carmelo about how it used to work in the old days.
