FanHouse

What we have here are some highlights from the Lakers' blowout win over the Nuggets on Thursday night. The Nuggets, as they have done in three of their seven losses this season, completely gave up in the fourth quarter, resulting in a score that was not indicative of their effort through the first three quarters. But that's not why I'm showing you these highlights. I'm showing you these highlights to point out to you what a poor sport and sore loser Carmelo Anthony is.

Near the end of this clip, Carmelo grabs Laker scrub Sasha Vujacic around the throat as he tries to make a baseline cut. Now the fine folks at ESPN try to show you how flagrant a foul that this truly is, but the camera angle doesn't really do it justice. Check out the video, then we'll discuss.

It doesn't look that bad, but besides hearing from people who were at the game and had a better angle, we know this is a flagrant foul for two reasons: One, Carmelo was immediately ejected from the game, without hesitation from the officials. That means they saw something that was so bad that it required no further discussion, and nothing less than an immediate ejection. Two, Sasha himself said as much after the game:

"I think it was frustration on his part. He's one of the best players in the league. But we did an amazing job on defense against him by double-teaming him -- and that's why he tried to choke me. I was surprised that he grabbed me with his hand."

Look, there's simply no reason to grab an opposing player by the throat as he runs by you. Unless of course, you're frustrated by the fact that a seldom-used Euro on the opposing team happens to go off and cause your squad to lose by almost 30 points.

I'm not sure if George Karl is to blame for his team quitting once they feel the game's out of reach, or if it's the fact that Carmelo just couldn't handle getting blown out by the likes of Sasha Vujacic. But going "flagrant foul" on him is simply not the answer, and it reminded me of when the Warriors couldn't handle losing to the Jazz in last year's playoffs. If you guys don't want to lose, then play better basketball. But if you can't, getting violent with the other team makes you look like nothing more than a bunch of sore losers.