Mike,

I won't say anymore about the Stoudamire incident, basically we both completely disagree, I like the rule as it is, no exceptions whatsoever, if there is a fight and you leave your bench, you should be suspended without further contemplations, it is a clean a very easy to follow rule, no need to obscure it with ifs and buts to protect some people, that was the job of the assistant coaches who should share the blame for not stopping one of their marquee players.

>>You think it is way overblown for this year alone? The Spurs were serious contenders for the past 8 years, winning 4 championships, and it took a 0.4 shot in 2004 and a bad move by Ginobili last year to prevent even better runs.
>>
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>Last year? They lost in the conference finals to the team that lost in the finals. That's a lot of woulda-coulda-shoulda counting that as a near championship.
>

I was not woulding-coulding-shoulding, I was merely stating the fact that the Spurs were serious contenders for the past 8 years and in 04 and 06 they run could have been deeper if not for a couple of unfortunate plays (for the Spurs <g>), but playing the playoffs for 10 consecutive years, winning 4 championships and never falling in the first round of the playoffs tells me that they were really serious contenders.

>Again, I am not getting down on the Spurs. They're a very good team and they play the game the right way. Let's just not get carried away with talk of dynasties and all-time great teams.

If not all time, We can settle for the best professional sports team in USA for the last 10 years, considering NBA, NFL, MLB and NHL <g>