If you're on the court when your team gets in an NBA "fight" -- what the rest of us would call a shoving match where nobody really wants to throw a punch -- should you run into the fray and help your teammates?
Friday night, with just more than three minutes to go in Phoenix's eventual victory, the Suns called a timeout, and Tyler Ulis and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope got in one of those shoving matches. Players from both teams raced into the fray to protect their teammate/break it up.
The Suns' rookie Josh Jackson picked up a technical for his role racing in and escalating the matter.
Lakers' rookie Lonzo Ball, however, just walked away from it all and headed to the bench.
That has led to criticism of the rookie from some Lakers' fans, who see a guy who didn't rush in to protect his teammates.
"It's the NBA," Ball said. "People ain't really going to fight. I ain't trying to get no tech."
"Ball is right, nothing was going to come of this," wrote Kurt Helin of NBC Sports. "It was meaningless posturing. Walking away was the mature move.
"However, the question is how is this perceived in the Lakers' locker room? Do the players care that Ball shrugged and walked away? Do they think he needed to race in and try to look tough like everyone else? That can impact his standing on the team more than anything."
Ratings disaster
Mike Bianchi of the Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel, on Miami playing in an NFL prime-time TV game for the third week in a row: "And you wonder why NFL ratings are down! Putting the Dolphins offense on Monday Night Football is like putting Aunt Phyllis' minivan in the Daytona 500."
Hands off
Oklahoma played at Kansas on Saturday. The Sooners have Heisman Trophy frontrunner quarterback Baker Mayfield, and Kansas is Kansas.
At the pregame coin toss, Mayfield went to shake hands with the guys he was about to put somewhere between 300 and 600 passing yards on. They declined.
Mayfield's response was a classic "I'm not even mad. This is actually funny to me" kind of thing.
Later, Mayfield taunted Kansas fans, which included suggesting they "stick to basketball."
Mayfield's legend has grown this year as he's gotten into heated moments with other teams. He previously planted a flag in the middle of Ohio State's field and got into a pregame ruckus at Baylor, among other little moments along the way.
Grab, grab, grab
From Janice Hough of leftcoastsportsbabe.com:
"Now Jameis Winston accused of groping a female Uber driver. Buccaneers wishing he had stuck to grabbing crab legs?"
Sports quiz
What NFL team has suffered the most losses on Monday Night Football?
Answer
The Chicago Bears with 34.
Sports on 11/19/2017