After Tuesday night’s scuffle between Robin Lopez and Serge Ibaka (punches were actually thrown!), I woke up to a text from a good friend who was yearning for the days of true fights in the NBA. “They gotta bring brawls back to the NBA,” this friend said. Is it true, I thought? Has the Association been lacking some grown-man fisticuffs? After all, weren’t Stephen Curry and Russell Westbrook ready to throw down in primetime just this week?
Well, apparently not. After some extensive YouTube research, I quickly realized the 2016–17 season has been filled with violent episodes.