The NBA, it's Wusstastic!

The pussification of the NBA is now complete.

Jerry Stackhouse was suspended for game 5 of the NBA Finals for his "Flagrant" foul on Shaquille O'Neal. Flagrant, my ass. I've seen much harder fouls in a rec league game.


Stackhouse is listed at being 6'6" and 218. Shaq is 7'1" and unbelievably listed at a laughable 325. Not exactly a fair fight, so to speak. The disparaity in size didn't keep Stackhouse from making a play. Stack was not going to allow a breakaway layup to the Diesel, and as he should have, took him out, hard. Shaq shrugged the foul off as no big deal, saying after the game, "My daughters tackle me harder when I come home." When you think about it, Shaq hits defenders damn near as hard when he puts his shoulder down and makes one of his bum rushes to the basket. Just ask Ben Wallace.

What Stackhouse did was commit a hard, but legitimate, foul in the heat of an important game. It wasn't a cheap shot, Stack didn't take the Big Aristotle out low, or hit him in the head. Just a body on body hit. Unfortunately, Stackhouse didn't make a play on the ball, which is what has the NBA's panties in a bunch.

Anyone who has played at any level was taught that you never give up an easy layup. No way, no how. Stack's foul was wasn't anything that long time NBA fans, especially here in Detroit, haven't seen before. Not all that long ago, hard fouls like that were seen on a nightly basis. The whole so-called controversy should have ended right there on the court, with a personal foul called on Stack, and Shaq going to the line.

But David Stern and the rest of the politically correct lackeys in the NBA offices saw the play differently from the rest of us. Using tunnelvision and their PC minds, the NBA powers that be saw a thug take out one of the NBA's meal tickets. A strange way to see it, considering Stack has no history of that style of play.

In today's "Breathe heavily on an offensive player, let alone lay a finger on them, and you've committed a foul" NBA, the physicality of basketball is being refereed out, thanks to Stern and his lapdogs. The laissez-faire defensive style of today's NBA sure isn't the basketball I was taught to play, let alone watched during 1980's golden era of the association.

Let's just make the players wear skirts, give them an orange and white ball, and change the name of the league to the WNBA. Kobe Bryant already wears tights, so we're halfway there anyway.

You think former players like Bill Laimbeer, Charles Oakley, Rick Mahorn, and Jeff Ruland, to name just a few, are wondering what in the Hell happened to the man's game they once played? In their day, you went into the paint at your own risk. Today, the paint is a considered a thruway to the hoop, and any disruption while strolling to the hoop draws a whistle.

Basketball, despite what the NBA would like you to believe, is a contact sport. Hoops always has been, and should always be, about being tougher than the other team. Now, I'm not so sure...