One of NBA's brawls with most celebrated players involved. On November 9th, Julius Erving was having a bad game with six points in 23 minutes played. To make matters worse, Larry Bird was having a huge game, 42 points in 30 minutes. Dr. J started the brawl by holding Bird and knocking him down. As Bird tries to retaliate, he’s held back by 76ers’ players Moses Malone and Charles Barkley, allowing Dr. J to get a few punches in on Bird
This particular fight may have been intended to change the course of the series, as frustration was building for the Rockets Rockets’ Ralph Sampson went after the Celtics’ Jerry Sichting in Game 5 of the 1986 NBA finals. Sampson and the Rockets were facing an uphill battle, down 3-1 against a very good Celtics team
In Game 3 of the 1994 Eastern Conference Semifinals, Knicks’ Derek Harper and the Bulls’ Jo Jo English were involved in a small fight that didn’t look like it was going anywhere. However, players from both teams charged toward the action. Interestingly this fight occurred right in front of the then NBA Commissioner David Stern
In a game where defense was key, Indiana was ahead 97-82 with 45.9 seconds left when Ron Artest made contact with the back of Ben Wallace’s head in a layup attempt. Tensions escalated from there, with Wallace retaliating and shoving Artest in the face. Afterwhich Artest was lying on the scorers’ table. It looked like things could die down, but then a fan threw a cup of Diet Coke at Artest
Tempers flared when the Nuggets’ J.R. Smith was fouled by the Knicks’ Mardy Collins. The Knicks’ Nate Robinson escalated things by grabbing Smith and shoving him. Smith and Robinson took each other down as they tumbled into the first row of the crowd. One of the highlights of the fight was the Nuggets’ Carmelo Anthony landing a solid punch. Ten players were ejected