Frank Franklin Ii / AP

Denver's Carmelo Anthony, second from right, moves toward New York's Nate Robinson, right, during the fight that broke out in the fourth quarter of Saturday night's game.

Instead, just over two years after the Malice at the Palace caused the terms “NBA” and “thuggery” to become inextricably linked in the minds of basketball fans the world over, the Knicks and Nuggets disregarded their obligations to the greater good and flailed away at each other like rival bikers at a road house. In fighting for their individual honor, they brought dishonor upon the game.

Stern also wisely opened up a jumbo-sized can of legal whup-ass because of the response of some of the participants afterward. It seems the Knicks were perturbed because the Nuggets left their starters late in a game in which Denver was winning handily.

Said Nate Robinson of the Knicks: “They just wanted to embarrass us. It was a slap in the face to us. As a team, as a franchise, we weren’t going to let that happen.”

And this from Knicks coach Isiah Thomas, who discussed the situation afterward with Denver’s Carmelo Anthony: “I just said to him, ‘You know, you’re up 20, you’re up 19 with a minute and a half to go, you and (Marcus) Camby really shouldn’t be in the game right now.' ”

Note to Robinson, Thomas and the rest of the Knicks: Your team reeks. That’s the reason you were being embarrassed. It’s like one team in college football pouring it on another at the end of a rout. If you don’t want that to happen to you, improve and play better. Take responsibility. Whether your opponents take the high road and ease up, or whether they grind your faces into the muck, is solely at the discretion of the individuals whipping your butts. It’s called the spoils of victory. Justifying your fisticuffs because you don’t like being badly outplayed is a cowardly way of diverting attention away from the central issue, which is the fact that you’re incompetent.

But shirking responsibility isn’t new in the NBA. Let’s applauud Stern for bringing the hammer down on some players who not only didn’t learn from the mistakes of the past, but recklessly decided to go one unfortunate step further

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Jesse D. Garrabrant / Getty Images Contributor

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