With the NBA's decision that no suspensions would arise from the altercation in Game 6 of the first-round playoff series between the Indiana Pacers and Atlanta Hawks, the league has seemingly undercut its own rule.
The NBA rule on altercations and the consequences for those who leave the vicinity of the bench area is an awful rule, not open to interpretation, and applied equally to all poor souls who dare violate it.
But it's the rule in place, and it's been applied the same way in every instance since it's been instituted. And for that reason, to change it now, even to reinterpret it at this juncture, would be wrong.
It sounds draconian. It sounds obstinate, unbending, narrow-minded. But Paul George, Rasual Butler, Pero Antic and anyone else who left his respective bench area during the late second-quarter altercation between Mike Scott and George Hill should have been suspended for Game 7.
