After it was announced that Roy Hibbert would be suspended for one game for his part in the Warriors-Pacers brawl on Feb. 26, he told the Indianapolis Star that his mother had a negative reaction to his behavior.
"My mom was a little upset," Hibbert told the Star. "She said I should have walked away."
Not only should Hibbert have walked away, but the rest of the Pacers would have been advised to so the same for a number of reasons.
First of all, it brought back memories of the Piston-Pacers brawl of 2004. After I recounted the brawl to a friend of mine, the first words out of his mouth were, "Didn't Ron Artest start a fight with Detroit a few years ago?" Even though the now Metta World Peace hasn't played for Indiana since the 2005-2006 season, the memory of his actions still linger as a shadow over the Pacers team, and that shadow grew larger with the brawl with the Warriors.
That shadow also made people see the Pacers as villains in the brawl when in fact, it has been the Warriors whose play statistically has been more riddled than the Pacers' on-court conduct this season. The Warriors have had six flagrant fouls called against them this season as opposed to one for the Pacers, according to ESPN's website. Lee has two of those. Also, TeamRankings.com shows the Warriors average 21.9 personal fouls a game compared to 20.1 personal fouls for Indiana.
On the other hand, the Pacers average 0.6 technical fouls to 0.3 technical fouls for the Warriors, according to TeamRankings.com. The Pacers' technical foul average is skewed by one player, David West, who has 10 this season, according to ESPN's website. That is a reason West shouldn't have gotten involved in the brawl. After 16 technical fouls, one is suspended for a game.
While West said that he and other Pacers got into the fight as a show of team unity, according to the Associated Press, this was a time when team unity wasn't in the best interest of the team.
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