NEW YORK -- If David Stern harbors any hope of crushing the sort of repulsiveness witnessed inside The Mecca of Basketball, if he entertains grandiose visions of forever eradicating a reenactment of Saturday night's violence, he won't fumble the opportunity that's fallen into his lap, won't recoil from reaching an appropriate retort to his league's latest outbreak of senselessness.

First let's dispense with the obvious:

Coming down hard on those who incited the riot, those who escalated it and those who prolonged it indefinitely is as uncomplicated a decision as it gets.

Instructions from a judge aren't necessary. Testimony from combatants or peacemakers is pointless. As all of us plainly saw, the cheap-shot artists, the provocateurs, the sucker-punchers, the instigators, the retaliators and every aspiring gladiator earned a suspension and a deluxe fine.

Carmelo Anthony merits the most time in stir for cold-cocking an unsuspecting Mardy Collins, perhaps as many as five-to-seven games.

If justice ain't dumb and blind, Nate Robinson also will get a stiff sentence. As usual the half-pint went looking for trouble. Had he not sped to the scene of the crime and pushed J.R. Smith, and then goaded him into fight the explosive situation would've been defused. I'm convinced Napoleon had a Nate Robinson complex. I say trade him for another team mascot.

For initiating the brawl with a dangerous two-armed yank of Smith's neck, and his leading role in what ensued, Collins warrants a two-game deactivation, which won't be all that different from his regular status.

While it's undeniable Smith was victimized twice, first by Collins, next to Robinson, the second time he got up swinging, the way they tend to do at St. Benedict's Prep in Newark, N.J. The right to Robinson's head will cost him a game. Another game is liable to be tagged on, just as a reminder that retribution doesn't pay.

Jared "The Avenger" Jeffries ought to get a game or two strictly for acting so convincingly deranged. You can tell this definitely wasn't the first time the native of Bloomington, Ind., went wilding.

OK, I think we all agree, that was the painless portion of today's programming.

Time now for Stern to endorse an enduring declaration.

Time to punish George Karl for essentially taunting Isiah Thomas by keeping his starters on the floor despite leading by 20 or so deep in the fourth quarter.

Time to indict Thomas for insinuating his subs had his blessing -- if not carrying out a direct order -- to show what can happen when the Knicks are disrespected.

Coaches habitually pontificate about playing the right way. Yet very few coach the right way. Other than my line of work it's the most unprofessional profession I've encountered. Only the insecure, paranoid, pitiless and treacherous need apply. Petty jealousies and grudges and reprisal abound.

That's the Nuggets-Knicks meeting in a nutshell. A lot of resentment was seething above and below the surface long before the two teams ever tipped off and none of it had anything to do with the players.

Karl and Larry Brown are friends. Both played for Dean Smith at North Carolina. So, naturally Karl despises Thomas. So, naturally, Thomas despises Karl. Truth is they probably had no use for each other long before Karl became Crusader Rabbit/Brown's Guardian Angel.

Clearly, Saturday's contempt of court was no accident. Karl coordinated running up the score by excessively deploying his regulars. Thomas engineered a punitive strike after Smith reverse jammed off a fast break on an earlier possession.

Afterward, Thomas all but admitted his irregulars had permission to insure any remaining home fans wouldn't see a replay of that side show.

Karl thought it was cool to rub it in. Thomas thought he was cute getting even. Both used players as pawns to do their dirty work. They allowed a personal vendetta to poison their reasoning and, therefore, should be held more accountable than anyone else for Saturday's flagrant fragrance.

If Stern is serious about permanently curbing such hostility there's no better deterrent, I submit, than suspending coaches without pay for as many games as the longest stretch.

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As evidenced by the above and what's below, 'tis the season to be melancholy, fa-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la...

And nobody in the NBA "family" is more crotchety these dithering days than Uncle Stern, and that was before the brawl.

Don't get me wrong; being on the warpath is nothing out of the ordinary. However, commissioning a grounds crew to repair it, suggests he's suffering from more than a touch of the moody blues.

If possible, I recommend cancelling any planned meetings and forget about contacting Stern by phone. In fact, avoid him altogether until further notice.

Unfortunately for Stu Jackson and Salvatore LaRocca, that's virtually impossible. The league's VP of Violence and its Global Merchandizing Mastermind may never get off his carpet and appear to be in danger of being rolled up in it and carted to the nearest landfill.

This is what happens when you make Father Nature look bad.

As I understand it, Jackson and LaRocca were the "brains" behind Stern's granting permission to Spalding to tamper with the game's most vital feature. It was their research that assured Stern a radical change from a leather ball to a synthetic one was a product upgrade.

Clearly, Jackson and LaRocca were unprepared by the majority stink raised by sneering-at-the-sphere players, many whose fingers are bandaged because of its irregular dimples/unsmooth surface.

If you think you don't like unpleasant surprises, imagine Stern's reaction at being so brutally blindsided and harshly criticized by the players and their union that full-court pressed him to reverse his decision.

I have no special insight into LaRocca's international marketing expertise, but, once again, Jackson demonstrated he has no feel for his workplace.

To Stern's credit, he came around and confronted the obvious rather than continuing to pretend it's all good. As of January 1, his mistake will be corrected.

That gets Stern off the hook with the players. Meanwhile, Spalding's conniption may never subside. His abrupt mind reversal figures to cost the company millions and millions of dollars and then there's the commissioner's lost credibility with one of its most renowned sponsors/partners.

Even as the players' outrage surged, I'm told, the league insisted to Spalding its new ball would remain on the court. Consequently, it kept stocking shelves throughout the world. One of the company's major international distributors swears to me Spalding didn't know about Stern's announcement until it was on the Internet.

I can't confirm that; maybe my source is angry because he was the last to know.

Peter Vecsey covers the NBA for the New York Post.