Don't make Mahorn the bad boy in WNBA scuffle
Melee in the WNBA
WNBA rookie Candace Parker has already earned attention for her dunks. Now she'll get more after being part of a fight that led to four ejections. Check out pics of the fracas.
More from the fight:
No one ever said equality was always perfect and gentle and positive. Equality was contaminated by the same forbidden fruit as everything else. There is no reason to act surprised that a bunch of women would lose their temper on a basketball court and resort to the same kind of emotional stupidity that afflicts men.
The WNBA has been calling for next for at least a decade, and this is what goes along with running with the big dogs. You occasionally get bitten.
I don't want to hear anymore whining from Leslie about her slip and fall to the ground after 300-pound Rick Mahorn walked toward her and extended his arms in an attempt to keep her away from the skirmish between and around Candace Parker and Plenette Pierson.
"I don't even know why (Mahorn) was pushing me down," said Leslie, who called herself a role model and mommy during an overdone postgame interview. "I wasn't swinging or hitting anybody. I was just going to help my teammate up."
On a basketball court, Leslie is a 6-foot-5 center, and that fact trumps being a role model and mommy when a tussle breaks out.
There's no reason for anyone to pretend that Mahorn, the former Pistons enforcer, committed some sort of domestic-violence felony. Mahorn's gender should play no role in the WNBA's evaluation of Tuesday's fracas, which led to four ejections, including Mahorn's.
He committed a misdemeanor. The league should treat Mahorn like he got busted driving 72 miles per hour in a 65-mph zone. Give him and the other "combatants" a ticket, sit 'em down for a game and move on.
"I was trying to protect the whole game, the integrity of the game," Mahorn told the media after the game. "I would never push a woman. This game, I love this game too much."
Mahorn is justifiably scared to death. We are so politically correct and dishonest about the way we judge male-female conflict of any kind that he can't afford to say what he really thinks.
He reacted instinctively to prevent the scrap from escalating. Leslie, intimidated by his size, backpedaled and fell when Mahorn gently pushed her. Mahorn should avoid speaking in absolutes. We know he would push a woman because there's footage of him gently pushing Lisa Leslie. And if a woman attacked one of his four daughters, we can assume Mahorn would at the very least push the female attacker.
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He doesn't need to apologize for his behavior Tuesday night or get defensive about it.
Leslie and all the other women on the court signed up for basketball equality. Leslie was treated like an athlete at The Palace. Not a mommy or role model. Just a basketball player.
And this was nothing like the Pacers-Pistons "Malice at the Palace" in 2004. I've watched the video a dozen times on ESPN and YouTube. Were there any real punches landed? Someone on the Sparks tapped Mahorn on the back a couple of times. Mahorn barely noticed.
None of the players went into the stands. And none of the spectators threw anything on the court or at the players.
It was a sweaty pillow fight in shorts and tank tops.
Is it good publicity for a league looking for relevancy?
Only if you believe all publicity is good publicity. I don't subscribe to that theory. No one watches basketball (or baseball) for the fights. The scuffles are a turnoff. I'm no more likely to watch the next Sparks-Shock game than I was before Tuesday's dustup.
This isn't hockey. I used to make a point to watch the Red Wings and Avalanche play back when their feud was more heated and violent than the Hatfields and the McCoys.
Basketball is different. It's still a finesse game.
This was bad publicity that will lead to a bunch of Don Imus jokes. Let's hope the league doesn't overreact and treat Mahorn in a way that signals the WNBA has no real understanding of true equality.
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