BTI's Rants and Ramblings: Brittney Griner's Punch

How much uproar over Cousins elbow, but only 2 games for an on-court assault? There has been much backlash from the punch heard round women's basketball, that from the right fist of Baylor dunker Brittney Griner.  But even more than the punch itself has been the discussion about her subsequent 2-game suspension.  Was the suspension enough?  How does her being a women (sorta) play into this?  There are so many angles this story has taken, it deserves to be discussed.  First, watch the sucker-punch again: Ok, we can all agree that this was a flagrant punch that Griner intended to do as much harm as possible.  If you can say luckily, the other girl only ended up with a broken nose.  But, the 2-game suspension is what has most people up in arms.  Let's take a look at some of the major aspects of the story. 1. The Woman Angle -Some would argue she only received 2 games because she is a woman, and the danger of a woman throwing a punch is, in some people's mind, not as dangerous as a man.  First of all, this is a 6'8'' gigantic woman who would destroy every member of the KSR writing staff in a fight.  So, woman or not, her attempt at decapitating her opponent was incredibly flagrant, and in my opinion against the law.  Demarcus Cousins threw a questionable elbow against Louisville, and people were calling for a 5 or 10-game suspension.  Griner goes all Ivan Drago on another girls face DURING the game, and gets 2 games.  I say "during" the game because Oregon's Lagarette Blount punched a Boise St. player after a game this season, and received an 8-game suspension, or 66% of his season.  Griner does the EXACT same act and receives a suspension of 6% of her season.  How much of this is due to her being a woman, I don't know.  But the Blount comparison is striking to me.  Man punches another man, knocking him down but uninjuring him.  Woman punches woman, breaks her nose.  Man gets worse punishment?   2. The "Average Punishment" argument -Let's remember that Candace Parker got into a fight in a WNBA game in 2008 and only received one game.  Shaq and Charles Barkley got into a famous fight in 1999, punches were thrown, and each man received one game.  The examples are rampant that fighting in the NBA leads to a 1-game suspension, unless that fight spills into the crowd.  The NCAA mandates a 1-game suspension for those that throw punches in games.  But my question is how is this fair at all?  In no other profession or situation in life can you assault or attempt to assault somebody and receive such a marginal punishment.  Maybe at a bar.   Fights at work most often lead to termination.  But, on an athletic playing field, the laws don't exist and the rules are bent so that we can keep the stars on the field.    3. Griner got off easy because this happened late in the season -I think this argument holds the most weight on why Griner only received a 2-game suspension.  Very interesting to me that Griner is only going to miss the final regular season game (NCAA mandated) and their Bears first game in the Big 12 tournament, which will be against a weak conference team.  I GUARENTEE that if this happened in November, Griner was looking at a MINIMUM 5-game suspension, if not more.  But, lets be honest, if you are Baylor coach Kim Mulkey, you can't risk losing the Big 12 title or an early NCAA Tournament game.  It's all about winning, right?  And lucky for Mulkey, she has the pansy-a** 1 game mandate from the NCAA to back her up. Why does this incident rile me up so much?  Because it is just another example of athletes getting special treatment, both in college and the pros.  You can call it jealousy or whatever you want, but since when does being able to dunk a basketball also allow you to bend/break rules with little to no punishment.  It is my contention that every player that lands a punch during or after a game should be criminally charged.  And I am not sure if there has hardly ever been a more flagrant punch thrown in a men's or women's game that I have seen.  And what does Griner get?  A free education, among all the other perks.  Griner was not even seriously provoked.  At least Blount had the guy right in his face talking trash.  Griner reacted to physical play in the post. If there ever was a moment for the NCAA or a school like Baylor to take a stand against this kind of actions, actions which have increased ten fold in the past 10 years, then the time was now.  What did Griner have to do to receive a legit suspension, knock the girl unconscious.  I don't know, but I do know that as long as the Brittney Griner's of the world get away with cheap, dirty plays like that punch, then we should expect nothing else from our athletes.  And maybe we should encourage it.