Sports wimps

As if it matters, there is now a debate as to whether a couple NBA guys should be disciplined (see fined or suspended) for throwing a punch or two at each other during a game.

It depends on how one views such things.

Like Major League Baseball, and even the rock-em sock-em NFL, the players talk a lot of trash, but are notoriously wimpy when it comes to actual physical confrontations.

There is nothing more pitiful to watch than Major League relievers being woken up in the bullpen, then running all the way across the field to huff, puff, and threaten, but basically act like your proverbial pansies when it's "show time" with the fisticuffs and other mayhem. I mean, what's the point?

In the NFL, it's equally pitiful to watch some idiot take his helmet off and start swinging at an opponent that had the basic common sense to keep his helmet ON. How dumb is that?

Yet the debate rages on as to when an NBA player has "crossed the line" regarding on-court no-nos.

With apologies to the Bard and his fictional character Hamlet -- To discipline or not to discipline. That is the question.

Actually, it's a simple one to answer.

There are two choices.

1) If NBA players want to duke it out on the court, by all means let them, like the officials do in the NHL. When one guy has sufficiently pummeled the other and taken him to the court, then step in and break it up.

Or the polar opposite.

2)  Any player that throws a punch, even if it misses, should be suspended for not one, not two, but ten games -- without pay. A second offense will result in a twenty game suspension. Considering the ridiculous salaries these guys make, that gets into the millions. THAT would get their attention and the wimpy pseudo-fight nonsense would stop.

To boot, any player that comes off the bench, like the above-mentioned relief pitchers -- and the subs in Major League dugouts -- gets a ten game suspension without pay as well.

If they are not even in the game, they have absolutely NO business jumping into a confrontation between players that are. This is thug behavior, not that of a professional.

The NHL solved this problem long ago. Sure, they'll let guys fight fair and square on the ice. They'll both be given five minute "major" penalties for doing so, but everybody knows the rules.

More importantly, the hockey folks saw the wisdom in dropping the hammer super-heavy on the head of any fool that was the "third man in", let alone benches clearing.

And trust me, the NHL players are far more formidable fighters than any NBA wimp.

But at least they do it as the testosterone filled men they are -- on skates no less -- instead of like the tattooed Urkels that seem to be everywhere in the NBA.

So there you go Mr. Peanut Head, sometimes known as NBA commissioner Adam Silver.

Make a call, dammit, and stick to it.

Either let them fight, with the on-court refs staying out of the way until it's over -- even though it would be a pitiful showing -- or start handing out ten and twenty games suspensions every time somebody throws a hand at the face of an opponent. Groin kicks --hello Draymond? Make that thirty games.

This wishy-washy policy of nobody knows where the line is in any given situation just isn't cutting it.