Whatever the Suns couldn’t accomplish on the court Wednesday night, they tried to make up for with non-sporting tactics. Being a UCLA guy, I’m familiar with Matt Barnes‘ background as a tight end on his high school football team. Seems like he was rekindling his football days when he laid into Rafer Alston of the Rockets who was trying to put a screen on him. Yao Ming came over to play peace-maker, Steve Nash tried to get in the middle, Tracy McGrady threw a shove in there, and pretty much once Shaq got into the picture all was quiet on the western front. Here’s a video that shows every aspect of the fight from start to finish:
Alright, so let’s break down all elements of this brawl. Matt Barnes was the dirty one with an uncool check on Alston to start everything. Nash comes skating in to get involved and gets tossed like a parking ticket by T-Mac. Then Shaq comes in the middle, pushes T-Mac who falls over with ease, and then he pushes Yao who tumbles over T-Mac in a 3 Stooges-like comedy bit. And that pretty much ended everything. With the teams fighting for playoff spots in the West, it’s not going to be easy for either of these squads to get by without their top players for a handful of games, which is where it looks like we’re heading. And the biggest kicker of all? Ron Artest wasn’t anywhere near the fight! Amazing.
