His Middle Name is Notso

Marcus Smart deserved at least a 5-game suspension for shoving a fan during a game against Texas Tech.
Smart went into the stands for a loose ball. The fans he landed on helped him up, but the fan seated behind them, Jeff Orr, called Smart a piece of crap (or shit) and Smart shoved him in the chest.

Maybe the fan should not have yelled that in Smart's face, and we surely have seen a decline in civility at games and in our society at large. But Orr's taunt did not warrant a physical action. There was no racial slur. Smart made that up to his coaches who then leaked it to the media to try plant reasonable doubt to protect their player. But you'll notice Smart never made that allegation publicly and no one seated in the area reports hearing that.

If we have learned anything from the Trayvon Martin killing it's this: don't escalate situations into physical violence unless absolutely necessary to protect yourself.

And the old adage "two wrongs don't make a right" is also true here. Orr and Zimmerman were wrong to initiate their confrontations but Martin and Smart were wrong to resort to violence, and that's why they paid a steeper price.

But, I would still take Smart on the Knicks. He needs to get his shit together but he is a good player and will probably have a great NBA career if he can learn from these incidents instead of repeating them.