Yesssssss!!!

Santa came early and delivered a great NBA fight for all the fans of gangster NBA hoops. The squabble in the Garden, I can't call it a "brawl" because Detroit and Indiana set the bar for what a "brawl" is. The most disturbing thing by far about the tonight's fight in the Garden is that it took almost four hours for footage to hit YouTube. If I'm Google and I find out it took my new baby almost four hours to get a sick NBA fight online; I'm a little pissed and wondering where my $1.65 billion is going. Finally at about 12:00 EST, YouTube delivered. This was already after I had seen it on Sportscenter and had to suffer through the analysis by some balding white dude, who looks like he should be talking about how tech-savvy he is at your local Radio Shack, and Kiki Vandewghe, who you think would have something interesting/new to say since he was the Nuggets' GM for the last five years. They both babbled for five minutes saying nothing. Kiki said the Knicks' and Nuggets' GMs must be shaking their heads in disgust and frustration; breaking one of the cardinal rules of sports journalism by assuming Isiah Thomas would do think and act rationally. For all we know this is phase number 423 of Isiah's grand scheme to turn the Knicks around and he told Mardy Collins to foul J.R. Smith that hard. I would never underestimate the man behind this.

ESPN's dynamic duo also discussed how heart-wrenching this is for any fan of the NBA or sports in general. This makes me wonder where I fit in as a sports fan who lives for epic moments like these. Will I ever out-grow a classic sports fight, will I ever be that mature, where I'll sit back and shake my head at the television instead of screaming to myself at a recorded fight.

The sad part is Melo will now be labeled a thug for this fight and 30 minutes later on Sportscenter Barry Melrose will show the fight of the night from the NHL. Although I'd take being hated by the national media over being watched solely by Barry Melrose any day of the week.

Seeing as how Melo got thrown out of a game earlier this season for tossing his headband toward his own bench; I assume the Commish will give him nothing less than 25 to life for throwing a punch/slap at Mardy Collins.

The main thing this fight was missing that The Malice in the Palace had was Jamaal Tinsley coming out of the tunnel with a dustpan on a stick. Arguably the most gangster moment in NBA history. However, if I had to pick a gangster moment of the night, it would have to be Melo pushing over Channing Frye and towering over him with the look of death (apologies to the Wildcat in me). Melo's hit on Mardy Collins is somewhere between a solid punch and Rick James punking Charlie Murphy. Although it is weak that Melo back-tracked after hitting Collins.

Props to Jared Jeffries, not only for getting a silly $30 million out of Isiah, but for going after Melo after returning from a broken wrist. I'd like to have one of those cheesy inspirational posters that shows Jeffries in his stretched-out jersey being held back by three people reading: "Commitment: Trying to kill the NBA's leading scorer with your bare hands after coming back from a broken wrist."

Anyways I'm gonna go out and cop two purrs of the M3's to show my support.