Rondo vs. Humphries and The Role of Fights in the NBA

As many of you saw last night, Rajon Rondo and Kris Humphries got into a shoving match that spilled into the stands when Humphries dragged Rondo backwards. The fight started after Humphries fouled Kevin Garnett and Rondo took exception to it and shoved Humphries in the chest, Humphries retaliated and, well, you know the rest. Both Rondo and Humphries will be suspended, with Rondo earning the longer of the two since he started it, but the real point I want to make here is that these flare-ups are GOOD for the NBA.

A writer once made a comment that the NBA today has gotten too friendly. The players work together to make super teams (i.e. Nets, Heat, Lakers) and there is no real fire anymore with the exception of a few players (Garnett being the most obvious example). This, the writer argued, was taking away a part of the game, a part of the game that made the NBA in the 80s and 90s so good.

Here are some videos of a couple of those altercations:

Even the great Larry Bird got into it with Dr. J:

And you know what? It's good for the game, it adds passion to a league that can get very old, very quickly. The NBA (and every league for that matter) does well when there are rivalries, and the more intense the better. The NBA has been moving towards a more rivalry based league recently and that is great for the league and even better for fans. The Knicks-Nets rivalry is shaping up to be a good one, as is Thunder-Spurs and (in my opinion) the best one is Heat-Celtics. The Heat have the best player in the league and the Celtics took them to the brink in last year's playoffs, plus there is the added element of Ray Allen leaving Boston to go to South Beach and the subsequent cold shoulder given to him by Garnett and Rondo. That extra fire, the hard fouls, the jabs in the media add something special to every game they play, whether its a regular season matchup or Game 7 of the Conference Finals. Those Bulls-Knicks series in the 90s were the stuff of legend and it was because of the intensity that was involved. I hope that that intensity is matched in the coming games and when it does, I'll be sitting right there on the couch, popcorn ready to go.