Photo: Nic Antaya
While LeBron James was clearly out of line, bordering on dirty, Isaiah Stewart’s rage-filled antics were far worse. Harkening back to ‘The Malice at the Palace,’ NBA fans were holding their breath as a brawl threatened to erupt in Detroit once again. And just when it seemed things were under control, Stewart broke loose and charged back into the fray, going so far as to race through the bowels of the arena looking for a way to get at LeBron and the Lakers. This kind of behavior is completely unacceptable, and the NBA needs to make an example of Stewart.
Dan Patrick: “The person I would come down on harder in this is Isaiah Stewart. LeBron (James), if you want to suspend him, suspend him. But Stewart, what he did, he tried to escalate this. And he went at LeBron a couple of times and then tried to go behind, in the bowels of the stadium to get to LeBron and get to the Lakers. I would sit him down for, you know, at least 3 games, because you can’t have that. This is not the 70’s NBA. This is multi-billion-dollar companies. These players are making 40, 50 million dollars a year. You can’t have that. And I would make sure Stewart knows, while you did get bloody, we’re going to punish LeBron, but you cannot do what you did. And therefore, I’d put him down for at least 3 games, maybe even 5 games.”