Unwritten rules of sports

Last night there was a brawl near the end of an NBA basketball game. After all the punches were thrown and all the players thrown out, the TV talking heads were left to explain what happened. Turns out this brawl was precipitated by a perception by one team, the New York Knicks, that the other team, the Denver Nuggets, was disrespecting them by violating an unwritten rule of the sport. Near the end of the game, the coach of the Knicks Isiah Thomas complained to a Nuggets player about them having their starters left in the game even though they had a big lead. Consider this quote:

"Up 19 with a minute and a half to go, (Carmelo Anthony) and (Marcus) Camby really shouldn't be in the game," Thomas said. "We had surrendered. (Those) guys shouldn't even be in the game at that point."

Instead of coaching his own team, he is worrying about who is playing for the other team. The reason unwritten rules are called unwritten rules is because they don't exist. If you don't want to get embarrassed by your opponent play better. During last years little league tournament, we had a player's dad almost thrown out of the game for arguing with the other teams first base coach because they were still stealing bases even though they were winning by more than a couple runs. I had to explain to him that if we don't want them to steal we need to show that we can stop them. Your opponent is under no obligation to play down to your level.

There will be various punishments handed down by the NBA, but the guy who precipitated the fight, Thomas, probably won't be dealt with by the league. Don't worry though, his comments about surrendering should be a firing offense. The team may wait until the end of the season, but he'll be gone because he can't lead his team.