Now, whether it was intentional or not is up for debate by you, me, and everyone else. Stu Jackson from the NBA has the final verdict and he determined that it was intentional by Songaila. I don't know if it was truly intentional or not. It could go either way from my viewpoint looking at the video in a completely unbiased manner. The thing is that nobody should view it in an unbiased manner. This series was defined by the trash talking of the Washington Wizards. It was backed up by five games worth of hard hits and hard fouls to LeBron James including a push while he was in the air, two shots to the head, and finally Songaila's "punch."

So, please, someone tell me why the Washington Wizards and Darius Songaila should have been given the benefit of the doubt by Stu Jackson and the NBA? In a world where it is in the NBA's best interest to keep fights out of their games and protect all players from harm, why shouldn't they send a message after five straight games of premeditated rough play and fouling?

If anything, the Wizards were lucky that Brendan Haywood wasn't suspended for his push of LeBron early on in the series. To a lesser extent they should have felt lucky that they didn't lose DeShawn Stevenson after his hard foul to LeBron's head in another game. How many times do the Washington Wizards think they deserve the benefit of the doubt when they talked all series long, basically calling their shots against LeBron before they even occurred?

According to Stu Jackson and the NBA they didn't deserve the benefit of the doubt any longer. I don't understand how anyone else could disagree either.

Granted there were worse fouls in the series. There were worse fouls in other series. None of that matters. With the consistent evidence provided by the Washington Wizards to the NBA of how they were going to play this series they finally put the NBA to a decision with something that looked like a punch after the whistle. And that hints of fighting. The NBA can roll with the punches (pun intended) on hard plays if they feel like it, but they will not roll with it when it looks anything like a fight.