Thomas shouldn't be blamed for brawl

I’m not opposed to holding Isiah Thomas accountable for everything wrong with the Knicks, and maybe the world for that matter, but making him the fall guy for the fight at the Garden Saturday night is simply ridiculous. To continue playing the “if this was baseball” card, Thomas would be Lou Piniella – just following the unwritten rules of the game. When a player takes an extra base or pimps his homerun up a lot late, the next hitter gets drilled, almost always with the manager’s full endorsement.

Hard fouls are the exact same thing. J.R. Smith was trying to show up his opponents and he got drilled. It should have ended right there. Smith and Collins could have exchanged mama jokes and we’d be finished. The only reason anything got out of hand is because Nate Robinson wanted to prove he could have won the Golden Gloves in the midget division.

In baseball, Smith would be the one who disrespected the game while Thomas and Collins would just be honoring the code.