The fight at Madison Square Garden isn't that big of a deal — at least in the NBA.
We've had a chance to let it settle in. We've pointed fingers and made our judgments. And sadly, the media is treating the fight between the New York Knicks and Denver Nuggets as a "trend" story — NBA fights are a possibly increasing trend, they say. But they are missing the story.
Broadcast stations love great footage. A fight is just that — great footage with shock value. And because there is a shock value, it hides the real issue in this fight: the NBA is filled with immature players who never had the chance to grow up. The problem with early entrants in the NBA draft is not the lack of developed talent. It is the lack of maturity.
Go to a frat house at any college around the nation. Find a freshman guy and tell him that he has the talent to enter the real world. He will be working with guys just a few years older than him. Those guys are just like him — they were taken straight out of college after their freshmen year. Now place them in a Wall Street business office and tell them to work. Are they out of place?
The three players who played major roles in this fight are Carmelo Anthony, J.R. Smith, and Nate Robinson. These are the players who prolonged a fight that should have been a minor scuffle. Anthony left Syracuse University after one year, Smith skipped college, and Robinson left after his junior year.
One could argue that this is a small sample of players who did not finish school and that most early entrants of the draft turn out fine. I will argue a quick and easy formula: Money and Success + Immaturity = Trouble.
People don't go to college to simply earn a degree. People go to college to grow up. The NBA is no place to grow up.
Some of these guys get to the league and don't even know how to do their own laundry. They don't know how to manage their money and they don't know how to manage their time. They don't know how to restrain themselves and they don't know how to solve problems. In fact, I've heard stories of players who didn't know how to tip at a restaurant.
So while Anthony, Robinson, Smith and a handful of other players were throwing fists, the media didn't focus on the individuals. They focused the NBA's image. It's the easy thing to pick on, and with footage like that, this was way too easy.
The NBA won a small battle with the age-limit. In theory, I don't agree with the age limit. In practice, this age limit is the best thing that's happened to the NBA in a long time. If the NBA ever gets a rule like the NFL — a player must be three years out of high school — then the quality of the league will increase by leaps and bounds. It's just like the "real world." Employees shouldn't be hired based solely on talent. They should be hired based on maturity, attitude and, when it matters, potential. The "real world" isn't some imaginary place we all think we are at or are going to be at. It's the place that society has built in which certain actions are accepted and rejected.
But the NBA isn't like the "real world."
In the real world, when a highly-talented employee refuses to work with other employees, he or she is fired. In the NBA, they keep him around for a decade to see if he can carry a team. They embrace his talents and try to find other players who can work with him. His name is Allen Iverson.
In the real world, when there is a fight in the office, people are fired. In the NBA, people are fined, suspended and then they come back to the joy of their teammates.
And in the real world, people who aren't mature enough don't make it. They fail. In the NBA, if they can "ball," they get by.
So all things considered, this fight wasn't that big of a deal — at least in the NBA.
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