NEW YORK — Denver Nuggets coach George Karl used a mouthful of expletives to describe Isiah Thomas Monday after the NBA failed to penalize the New York Knicks coach for his part in the court brawl that erupted between the two teams.
Reacting to suspensions of three of his top players by the NBA league office, Karl referred to Thomas as being "... full of [expletive], he's a total [expletive] who should be held accountable for what his actions were."
The Nuggets allege Thomas called on one of his players to commit the flagrant foul which started the brawl at Madison Square Garden Saturday night.
NBA scoring leader Carmelo Anthony was suspended for 15 games and six other players were penalized as NBA commissioner David Stern came down hard on both teams for the fighting.
Nate Robinson and J.R. Smith each got 10 games, and four other players also were suspended. Stern fined each organization $500,000. But there was no separate penalty for Thomas, who had warned Anthony not to go into the lane before the mayhem started.
It was the NBA's scariest scene since the brawl between Pacers players and Pistons fans two years ago. The league is still recovering from that episode, and Stern made it clear the players must learn to control themselves.
"We're going to go after the players who aren't able to stop," he said during a conference call. "We have set up the goal of eliminating fighting from our game. We haven't eliminated it completely."
Anthony's suspension was the sixth longest in NBA history. Mardy Collins, whose hard foul on Smith sparked the fighting, was suspended six games and Knicks teammate Jared Jeffries will miss four. Also, the Knicks' Jerome James and Denver's Nene were both penalized one game for leaving the bench area during the chaos.
Ten players were ejected after the fight, which started with 1:15 left in Denver's 123-100 victory. The punishments were announced before both teams were to play Monday night — New York at home against Utah; Denver at home against Washington.
"I was very disappointed," Stern said. "Clearly, we're not getting through or players in certain circumstances just don't want to be restrained. I would suggest that those players will not have long careers in the NBA."
Stern was especially troubled by the fight between Robinson and Smith that spilled into the stands.
"My concern is actually for the safety of the players and the fans, and when things get out of hand you cannot predict or project where they're going to go," Stern said. "There were certain players who weren't going to allow themselves to be calmed."
There was speculation Thomas would be penalized for his comments to Anthony. Stern acknowledged hearing about it, but said he relied only on "definitive information" when handing out punishments.
But he was clearly annoyed by remarks from Thomas and the Knicks after the game that the problems were caused by the Nuggets still having four starters on the floor late in a blowout. And the fine showed he wants teams to be serious in helping him clean up the game.
"It's a more general message that I'm going to start holding our teams accountable," he said.
Collins prevented Smith from an easy basket by grabbing him by the neck and taking him to the floor. Smith rose and immediately started jawing with Collins, and Robinson jumped in to pull Smith away. Anthony shoved Robinson away, and Robinson and Smith then tumbled into the front row while fighting.
Just as things appeared to be calming down, Anthony threw a hard punch that floored Collins, and Jeffries sprinted from the baseline toward halfcourt in an effort to get at Anthony, but was tackled by a Denver player.
By the time security had finally contained Smith, they were nearly at the opposite end of the court from where the fighting started.
Before Stern talked, the Knicks held their morning shootaround, where Thomas didn't back away from the Knicks' postgame assertions that some of the problems were caused by Denver coach George Karl leaving his starters on the floor too long in a blowout.
"I can't speak for him, but he put his players in a tough position," Thomas said. "I think he put his players in a very bad position."
In Denver, Karl was irate with Thomas. Karl accused Thomas of a "premeditated" act, underscoring his disgust with the New York coach with expletives.
"It was directed by Isiah," he said during a shootaround. "I think his actions after the game were despicable. He made a bad situation worse. I'll swear on my children's life that I never thought about running up the score. I wanted to get a big win on the road."
"My team has had trouble holding leads at the end of games," he added. "I didn't want the score to get under 10 points because if it would've gotten under 10 points it would've had a negative feeling on my team."
Karl has bigger problems now. He'll be without Anthony until the Nuggets' game at Houston on Jan. 20, and Smith will be gone until Jan. 8. That duo combines for more than 48 points a game.
"It's going to be tough," said Nuggets center Marcus Camby, one of the five players ejected who wasn't suspended. "It's already tough being in the Western Conference, and missing guys like J.R. and Carmelo is going to make it even worse."
Anthony's conduct represents a big blow to the player, team and league. He starred as a captain on the U.S. team at the world championships this summer, and had been getting more marketing opportunities as one of the league's brightest young stars.
Stern took none of that into account when issuing his decision.
"We judged him on his actions on the court, period," Stern said. "And they deserved a harsh penalty."
FOX News' Denis King and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Somehow, I actually missed that this happened because I've had a busy week.
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