Where was the flagrant 2?
If McHale’s clobbering of Rambis had occurred this year, officials would’ve whistled him for a flagrant 2 foul with immediate ejection. “I think there might have been some games lost by the player involved,” says NBA Commissioner David Stern. Instead, McHale simply drew a personal foul. At this year’s All-Star Legends Brunch, Celtics Hall of Famer Bill Russell said, “If we went six games without a fight, (coach) Red (Auerbach) would be all over us. He thought if you played these guys six nights in a row and didn’t have some hostility toward them, something was wrong with you.” The league has come a long way in its intolerance for violence. “We have, over the years, made a determination that the sport is really quite beautiful and quite graceful and quite extraordinary,” Stern says, “and that our players are capable of inflicting great harm on each other if we don’t regulate it.” There also seems to be less animosity among today’s players. Boston coach Doc Rivers was a rookie with the A
