It seems like this season the NBA, or the players at least, are doing their best impersonations of the NHL with yet another fight in last nights Hawks/Rockets game in Atlanta.
Shareef Abdur-Rahim, the star forward of the Atlanta Hawks and Kenny Thomas of the Houston Rockets got into a mad scramble with 49.5 seconds remaining in the third quarter after Thomas had hit Abdur-Rahim in the throat during a scramble for positioning, writes Jeffrey Denberg of the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
'Abdur-Rahim struck Thomas with a quick right hand followed by at least three other punches while Thomas tried ineffectively to retaliate, unable to get around a referee who was in his line of fire,' wrote Denberg.
As players crowded around to try to defuse the already hostile duo both were immediately ejected, Abdur-Rahim almost certain to be suspended for one or more games (as you know by now automatic one game suspension for throwing a punch).
It is believed a no-call on a sequence of offensive rebounds and put backs where Abdur Rahim was clearly fouled - a play which resulted in a Shareef technical - may have set the scene for what occured only 15 seconds later, perhaps giving Phil Jackson's words about situations being defused earlier in light of the Shaq/Brad Miller incident last week.