The NBA's Miami Heat and Denver Nuggets are not even in the same conference — let alone the same division.
Yet that didn't stop one of the ugliest incidents that the NBA has seen in recent memory from happening when those two teams played each other at Ball Arena (a more than practical enough name for a venue where basketball is played) on November 8.
There was two minutes and 39 seconds remaining in what turned out to be a 17-point Denver blowout (remember that, according to no less authoritative a source than Dan "The Genius" Gordon, a blowout in basketball is defined as a victory by 15 points or more, whereas in football the margin of victory must be at least 21 points to satisfy the criteria for designation as a blowout), Heat forward Markieff Morris flagrantly fouled Nuggets center — and defending League MVP — Nikola Jokic (although some would claim that a certain Cameroonian immigrant who plays for the Philadelphia 76ers deserved that award instead), prompting Jokic to viciously shove Morris to the hardwood floor — an incident eerily reminiscent of when The Masked Superstar delivered not one, but two "neck-breakers" to Eddie Gilbert on a hardwood floor, which every member of the appropriate generation of professional wrestling fans can still remember as vividly as if it had happened yesterday.
What followed was something that, with any luck, Steve Harvey knows all about by now: Markieff Morris' twin brother, Marcus Morris of the Clippers, broadly hinted on twitter that he would avenge Jokic's attack on his brother the first chance he gets — which will come when the Clippers play the Nuggets at the Staples Center the night after Christmas.
But the "family feud" did not end there: Jokic's two brothers — Strahinja and Nemanja — opened their own Twitter account for the expressed purpose of responding to Marcus Morris: "You should leave this the way it is instead of publicly threatening our brother! Your brother made a dirty play first. If you make a step further be sure we will be waiting for you!!"
Meanwhile, suffice it to say that NBA commissioner Adam Silver was decidedly unamused: He suspended Jokic (who had also been ejected from the game) from Denver's next game, against the Indiana Pacers (which they won despite Jokic's absence), also fining Markieff Morris $50,000, and his teammate, Jimmy Butler, $30,000 for challenging Jokic to a fight — a fight that Butler would have had no chance to win because Jokic is four inches bigger than he is, and outweighs him by 54 pounds.
Has this ever happened in a same-division game?
This is why the NBA needs to stop living in the past, and consign The Malice at the Palace to the dustbin of history where it belongs.
Fans are entitled to more intradivision games, which greatly stimulate fan interest.
The ABA observed an 84-game schedule — and not for nothing, but that league also introduced the three-point shot to professional basketball (and the NHL, which almost always follows the NBA when it comes to the length of its own regular season, played an 84-game slate in 1992-93 and 1993-94).
With an 84-game schedule, each team could play their four division rivals six times each, the 10 teams in the other two divisions within their own conference three times each, while continuing to play their 15 non-conference opponents twice each.
And the bottom line is that if you give in to a potential mob by having fewer same-division games, you're letting the potential mob win — as the NFL's 49ers and Raiders did when they canceled their annual exhibition; oops, I mean, preseason, game because of one unfortunate incident between fans of the two teams — which of course is now moot with the Raiders having moved to Las Vegas, and that has allowed the preseason games between the teams to resume.
So now it's up to Steve Harvey to bring the Morrises and the Jokices together to settle this once and for all on an episode of "Family Feud" (the Coneheads need not apply).
It would garner the highest ratings in the show's history.
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