Grayson Allen is an Asshole and the need for street justice in basketball

The Era of the Hockey Goon is over and has been for 20 years.  The time for brush back baseball is faded and only recalled in sepia tinted memories.  The Era of Bad Boys and Thug street ball is also long past.  What hasn't left sports are assholes.

Most athletes don't play to intentionally harm another player.  But, like all human endeavors there will be assholes.  And assholes screw up everything for everyone. The question that arises is how does a team deal with a bad actor in sports?  For when the asshole player flouts rules, intentionally hurts other players, or consistently and seemingly gets away with it other players and coaches, rightly or wrongly, feel the need to extract justice (revenge) on the court.

Grayson Allen is a dirty asshole.  He's been an asshole and a dirty player since he was at Duke.  He plays dirty.  He plays to hurt people and he smirks and thinks he can get away with it.  And by and large he has. In his latest, purposefully dirty play Allen injured Bulls Guard Alex Caruso causing a fractured wrist, which Caruso is expected to miss 6-8 weeks.  Of course, Bucks fans don't care because It's Okay if Our Guy does it and Whataboutism from players the 1990's.

So what's the proper response?  Well, to Bulls fans and Coach Billy Donovan anything other than a long suspension feels like Allen got the better of the exchange.  And in the history of sports there have been numerous dirty teams and players injuring key opponents and derailing their playoff (and Championship) aspirations.  Premier 80s/90s Cleveland point guard Mark Price being purposefully concussed and injured by the aforementioned Bad Boy Detroit Pistons comes to mind.

What should the NBA and other sports leagues do?  Well, sadly the player who strikes first gets the most bang for their buck.  Retaliation, in football and baseball especially, get the player and team more heavily penalized.  The dirty cheating Houston Astros threw at and hit Chicago White Sox All-Star first baseman Jose Abreu repeatedly knowing if the Sox retaliated the Sox would suffer.

If sports leagues actually cared about cracking down on dirty play and assholes they would give fines and suspensions commensurate with the damage inflicted.  But, they won't and they don't.  In fact, most suspensions are challenged and the offending player often gets a lighter suspension on appeal.

You can't eradicate Assholes, like Grayson Allen, but if sports leagues actually cared about player safety, fair play, and true competition you could regulate them.  The rules the NBA adopted, slowly at first in response to Thug Ball of the Pistons and Pat Riley Knicks and Heat, and quickly after the Infamous Malice at the Palace are blunt instruments meant to curb flagrant behavior in general and were often turned on players like Rasheed Wallace whom Refs disliked but, don't seem suited to deal with a purposeful asshole like Allen.  The NBA rules committee or commissioner or safety board or whomever need to make an example of Allen or watch the players themselves take matters back into their own hands.

Robert Parrish repeatedly chops dirty Bill Laimbeer in the 1987 ECF