The Rule

Rule 12, Section VII(c) of the NBA Official Playing Rules says: “During an altercation, all players not participating in the game must remain in the immediate vicinity of their bench. Violators will be suspended, without pay, for a minimum of one game and fined up to $50,000.”

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The purpose of the rule is to prevent an on-court altercation from getting worse by making sure that players on the bench do not become involved — whether or not they intend to. The fewer the number of players on the court, the less likely it is that an altercation will escalate and the more likely it is that the referees and coaches will be able to restore order without serious injury to players or to fans.

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The rule doesn’t look to the intent of the players leaving the bench and it does not distinguish among the curious, the peacemakers or those seeking to become involved in the altercation. The reason for this is simple — the players on the court have no idea what a player’s intent is when he leaves the bench and in the heat of the moment they may well assume the player is approaching as an aggressor. Thus, the language of the rule is firm: “violators will be suspended.”

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This is not a rule that can be enforced on a case-by-case basis — if a player were able to leave the bench and later argue his case and avoid a suspension, there would be more players leaving the bench. And because the rule has been applied consistently over the years, bench-clearing incidents have been rare. Overall, the leaving-the-bench rule, together with others, has succeeded in dramatically reducing the amount of fighting in the league and all but eliminated serious injury during fights that do occur.

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Teams and players are reminded of the rule before every regular season and again before the playoffs. Teams try to ensure that their players comply with the rule by both reminding them of it and assigning assistant coaches the job of keeping players in the vicinity of the bench when incidents do occur.

The Facts Requiring the Stoudemire and Diaw Suspensions

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As soon as Steve Nash was fouled, both Amare and Boris ran toward the scene, each ending up over 20 feet away from the Suns’ bench and near the altercation. Despite what many have said, they didn’t “walk” a few feet from the bench and they didn’t “wander” onto the court. In fact, they engaged in the very conduct the rule was meant to stop.

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No one knew what the players’ intentions were when they left the bench and they could very easily have gotten involved in the altercation had it spilled over in their direction. And although you could say they were having a “natural” reaction to seeing their teammate go down, assistant coaches are supposed to stop bench players from acting on those kinds of reactions, which was the case with the 17 other players (active and inactive) who were on the benches at the time and did not leave.

As with all NBA rules, this one can be changed by a vote of the Board of Governors. Rules are typically changed following a recommendation from the Competition Committee, which will discuss the leaving-the-bench rule (along with several other items) at its next meeting. At this time, we don’t have a better rule to recommend.

One thing everyone can agree on: this was an extremely unfortunate circumstance. We never want to suspend players for any game, much less a playoff game, but for all the reasons described above, the facts dictated the application of the rule.

Bowen undercuts Nash on the jumper

Bowen Knees Nash In The Nuts:

Bowen Undercuts Anthony Parker



Edit: New One: Bowen Trips Stoudemire



Bowen Attempts to Trip Nash

Bowen stepping on Amare again from behind

After five years of blockbuster home sales, 2006 delivered a reality check for homeowners in Tucson. Sales of single-family homes skidded 33% from 2005, and price appreciation last year dropped to 8%, down from nearly 27% in 2005, according to DataQuick Information Systems.

only 8% appreciation? THE SKY IS FALLING!

“December was a little quiet, and 2006 was definitely a time of adjustment here,” says Martha Briggs, an agent at Long Realty. But last year’s sales figures were on par with the 2000-03 period; they “only look terrible in comparison with 2005.”

What happened to the bubble?

Dave from Barbaralasky.com has some more in depth MLS analysis for the month of December.

The good news is, college doesn’t need to be so hard on the wallet–at least when it comes to housing, an area that becomes more absurdly expensive with each passing year.

Total room-and-board expenses at private undergraduate colleges averaged $7,791 during the 2005-2006 school year, up 5% from the previous academic year, according to The College Board’s annual report on college pricing trends. But consider the alternative: investing in real estate. If done wisely, this nontraditional approach could not only save you the cost of college housing, it might even help you turn a profit.

Rather than shell out a small fortune for a ratty dorm room or an overpriced apartment, parents can build equity, generate cash flow and eventually benefit from real estate appreciation–assuming they are willing to be landlords and invest some cash up front.

Rhonda Butler, sales manager at Fonville Morisey Realty’s Chapel Hill, N.C., office, near the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, breaks down a local example.

“Say you have a $200,000 townhouse,” she says. “You can take four students and charge them each $700 a month for rent, and suddenly you’re going to have a positive cash flow on the transaction.”

With 10% down, a 30-year mortgage and a rate of, say, 7%, monthly mortgage payments would total about $1,200, for a net of $1,600 per month.

And though home prices around the country appear to be flattening out after a few years of sharp increase, college housing markets tend to experience less ups and downs.

I ran across a real world example Here