The Carmelo emails continue to pile up post-fight, as opposed to post-youth center. Interesting, that's all I can say. Interesting.

Meanwhile, the angst over the further decline of Western civilization continues, and it's worth trying to recall whether any of this talk accompanied the Red Sox-Yankees brawl (remember, Pedro vs. Zimmer) during the 2003 American League championship series. What I remember is that most of the talk was about what a demon Pedro was, or what a nut Zimmer was, but most of all, what an exhilarating chapter it was in a storied rivalry that will live forever. Apparently, Major League Baseball agrees, because the above link is to MLB's official website. Let's see the NBA try to sell its sport with video of the Garden melee, and see how far that gets them.

Anyway, you can get a lively discussion about all of that and other related topics, with colleagues Milton Kent and Joe Burris, on my weekly podcast.

We also touch on the Allen Iverson trade in the podcast. In the next few days, in keeping with the country's mood,one should fully expect a larger dissection of AI's career transgressions than of his career accomplishments. Hopefully, we'll also get some explanation of what happened to Joe Smith's career, period.

Last but not least ... has anyone heard this report about Terrell Owens spitting in someone's face? I guess if he'd done it while wearing shorts and sneakers at the Garden Saturday night, we'd be talking a lot more about it.