By Walter Dubowec

Despite everything that David Stern has done right, on this one he got it wrong – very wrong.

His ridiculous ruling resulted in two primetime Suns players - Amare Stoudemire and Boris Diaw receiving mind-boggling one game suspensions, while ‘Cheap Shot’ Bob Horry received a two game suspension. The Spurs won big-time on this one, even though their guy was the perpetrator.

Stern is understandably concerned over on-court melees like the Rumble at the Palace and the Nate Robinson/ Carmelo Anthony fiasco. Zero tolerance seems to be the NBA’s stance. But like with every such policy, there has to be some level of good judgement that comes into play to balance out the draconian nature of zero tolerance.

The events at the end of Monday’s Suns/Spurs game 4 in which Robert Horry inexpicably body checked Steve Nash into the scorers’ table have been well documented. Instinctively, Amare Stoudemire and Boris Diaw left the Suns’ bench area and moved towards the altercation that appeared to be brewing around Steve Nash who was down on the floor. 

                

                     Watch Horry/Nash Video and Listen to TNT Discussion

As we know, no serious altercation occurred and other than some words and a few limp wristed shoves exchanged between the players legitimately on the floor - this was a non-event. We’ve seen a lot worse on many other nights.

Commissioner David Stern handed down suspensions according to the letter of the law. During the regular season, that may be understandable. In a crucial playoff series, it makes no sense.

No one can deny that as the playoffs move along, NBA referees are more likely to let the guys play ball. Borderline calls become play-ons. Questionable fouls on drives to the hoop in the 1st quarter are rarely called on potential game-winning drives in the waning seconds of that same game.

As we now know, the Spurs beat the Suns 88-85 and if Amare and Boris were playing, one might reasonably assume that the Suns’ three point loss might have easily been a Phoenix victory. The Suns could very well be up one game instead of facing elimination with one more loss.

Clearly, David Stern’s ill-advised ruling has impacted the outcome of the series.

During all playoff games the referees use discretion. So why can’t David Stern? Did Amare and Diaw move towards the melee? Yes. Were they involved in an altercation of any sort? No.

In my opinion, that’s a play-on!

During NBA games, referees will often huddle and reverse a bad call. Fans and players alike applaud those instances because “they took the time to get it right”.

Well, this week David Stern took the time and he got it WRONG!