Bitte, Herr Kommissar Stern

Here's my feeling on the upcoming suspensions.

Amare clearly came onto the court, which is against the hard line rule. The NBA goes by the hard line in these cases.

I hope he doesn't get suspended, but if he does, Horry better get suspended for two games. It was a flagrant 2 foul, but it happened at the end of a game that was already decided. It was that blatant disregard for player safety (which Amare has been harping on for three days now) that cause the Suns bench to erupt.

In an emotional playoff game that has already been waiting to explode into a fight, it was bound to happen that Players would step on the court. Amare wouldn't have been there (except to check into the game ha ha) if not for Horry's actions. The body check itself was an inciting act, as well as a cheap shot.

My understanding after Carmelo's incident in New York was that a thrown punch is grounds for immediate one game suspension. But Carmelo got 15 games and Nate Robinson got 10 games for escalating the situation. In the case of game four, the situation was already escalated due to hard fouls and alleged dirty play in the previous three games.

So doesn't it stand to reason that Robert Horry should be suspended multiple games for committing a dirty, player-safety endangering foul, as well as escalating an already heated situation? His actions caused Boris Diaw's and Amare Stoudemire's spontaneous gut reactions. And no one seemed to notice that Marcus Banks even stepped onto the floor near the end of the bench to get a better look at what was going on. Will he be suspended with Amare?

I really hope that the league uses it's collective common sense for once, and do the right thing here. You can either suspend Horry for one game, then fine Stoudemire and Diaw if they left the bench. Or you can follow the letter of the law and suspend all players involved, with a little extra for Robert Horry.

I don't know which I prefer. I want my full team on the floor for game 5, but the less I see of Horry, the better for all of us. I'll go with the one game suspension for Horry and fines for the others. No sense in getting all Draconian on such a great series. If the NBA is smart, and they'd better be, they'll go easy on this one. They need to have as many players on the floor for as many games as possible in order to set up ratings for the Finals.

This is the series of the year, and it will be remembered as a classic. I promise you that. I'll be writing about it for hours. But not if the league gets stupid on us. Don't be the Kommissar. Be the Commissioner and do the right thing.

Please. Be David. Don't be Stern on this one.