NBA = USA?

Reader Dr. Robert Richardson wonders whether any parallels could be drawn between the recent—shall we say, assertive?—behavior of some NBA players and fans and the behavior of certain officials in U.S. and international politics. Dr. Richardson writes:

"It seems to me a nice parallel could be made between the recent Pistons/Pacers fracas and our being in Iraq. For the better part of a week after it happened, all sorts of people were weighing in on how things got out of hand in Detroit—Artest fouled Wallace hard, then Wallace shoved Artest harder, then Pacers players boiled off the bench to confront Wallace (while Artest lay down on the scorer's table), then a fan threw beer all over Artest, who went BOING and raced into the stands to get the guy, etc. After the fact, everyone talked about how it was terrible but how human nature works the way it does, etc., etc. I found myself thinking finally that it all sounded like how we got so screwed up in Iraq—GWB just couldn't help it once Saddam tried to have his daddy killed."

Dr. Richardson suggests that perhaps parallels could be drawn by matching NBA players with political players in the world scene, aligning the personalities and actions of U.S. and international politicians with those of Ron Artest, Ben Wallace, Jermaine O'Neal, David Stern, Rick Carlisle, Larry Brown, the pundits, the fans, etc. As Dr. Richardson muses, "Whom can we suspend for the rest of the season—or term in office?"

Anyone up to toying with the idea?