Best fighter on the Warriors, Giants or A’s? (contest post)

Last night, the Golden State Warriors played one of the more interesting games you’ll ever see that resulted in a double-digit loss. They came out with energy (offensively) and kept the score close until the middle of the third quarter. Stephen Curry had one of those games that shows why so many believe he’s the best shooter in the NBA, making 70% of his field goal attempts — including 3-point attempts.

The Warriors also turned the ball over a million times (Curry had 6). But forget that … they got into a fight! Nothing resembling that Friday brawl between the Sac State and UC Riverside baseball teams, but for an NBA disagreement in 2013 it got rather heated. No punches were thrown, but there were some shoves and people fell, and the skirmish made its way past the boundaries of the court and into the crowd far enough to spill a fan’s drink.

As a result, both David Lee and Roy Hibbert were suspended for one game, and Curry, Klay Thompson, and Lance Stephenson were fined $35,000 each. David West, who definitely put his hands on Andris Biedrins, was inexplicably left out of the NBA’s disciplinary process.

Throughout the game it seemed like there were more clear-outs, elbows and hand/wrist slaps than in any game I’ve seen all season, and what happened showed why refs sometimes feel a need to “take control of the game.” They didn’t last night, a skirmish seemed almost inevitable, and Hibbert and Lee got it going with exaggerated shoves. Hibbert was ejected after flinging Curry to the ground twice, and the strange sight of Curry (who looks childlike compared to a giant like Hibbert) mixing it up got me thinking…

Who’s the one guy you wouldn’t want to tangle with on the Warriors?

Suddenly, I had a good contest post idea. But just limiting this to Warriors seemed like a waste because most of the people would say Jarrett Jack or Draymond Green, one or two might say Festus Ezeli (muscles!) and a few jokers would choose Andris Biedrins. I’m onto you guys, especially some of you who comment regularly.

By the way, here’s what Hibbert had to say about Curry’s attempt to stick up for his buddy Lee:

“Seriously, I didn’t even feel (Curry). He just ran up on me. I don’t know. It’s between me and David Lee and he wants to get involved. I’m the type of person, I don’t want to start anything with someone that’s smaller than me. If I have somebody my size, we’ll talk it out like men. … I probably did toss the little guy to the side.”

So I figured I’d open this up a little, but let’s keep the 49ers, Raiders and Sharks out of this because fighting is their thing. Hockey teams have at least one player who could put “likes to punch people” in the first few lines of his resume. Football is so violent, with collisions so fierce and destructive, that whenever they resort to punching each other it looks ridiculous. STOP THAT, YOU TWO. YOU HAVE HELMETS ON AND MIGHT BREAK A KNUCKLE.

(Except the fight between Deion Sanders and Andre Rison, which was choreographed yet still awesome because it was a precursor to what we’d see years later on The Real Housewives of Atlanta, only without weaves. Aaaannnnd, stay tuned for when Larry Krueger brings up ways the Warriors can trade for Dwight Howard.)

However, baseball is just like basketball when it comes to fighting. Professional baseball, anyway. It looks ridiculous, often consists of more insults being thrown than hands, and every once in a while a fight happens that you never forget — like the brawl in 1988 between the Giants and the Cardinals that shaped the childhoods of myself and Mr. Brisbee (according to the math we’re the same age, how cute).

That’s right, we’re adding the Giants and Athletics to the mix. I bet you never expected I’d throw a curveball of that nature!

Here are the finalists for my Warriors/Giants/A’s fight card (and if Dominic McGuire still played for Golden State, this would be no contest):

Jarrett Jack: He may look an awful like like Neyo (not a sign of toughness), but he’s one of those guys who makes intense eye contact with everyone and oozes what the kids call “Swag.” There might be two or more g’s in “Swaggg.” I’m not sure.  Internetz

Draymond Green: Just ask Patrick Beverly of the Rockets. Green is almost like a younger, saner version of McGuire.

Pablo Sandoval: He generally seems pretty cheerful, but if he could put some weight behind any punches he might throw.

Sergio Romo: He’s on the opposite side of the weight spectrum, but this sneer makes him look like he might possess the crazy-eyed unpredictabilty any good fighter needs.

Yoenis Cespedes: His personality isn’t well known, but he may be the strongest man in Major League Baseball. Did you know he recently hit a home run in batting practice with a weight on his bat?

Grant Balfour: This sign says it all:

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Just like Monday’s contest, I’ll randomly choose a comment on this post and the person who wrote it will get a certificate good for one Large Pizza from Amici’s East Coast Pizzeria. Monday’s winner was William, who came pretty darned close to predicting what the 49ers would get from the Chiefs for Alex Smith: