I’ve lost interest in two major sporting events. The first is the NBA playoffs, where the San Antonio Spurs’ Robert Horry’s forearm shiver to Steve Nash of the Phoenix Suns has become the pivotal moment in the big money tourney. When Suns Boris Diaw and Amare Stoudemire left the bench after the assault, they were ticketed with one game suspensions. Horry got two games for his efforts. He claimed that it was simply, good hard basketball. Looked more like an angry player mad that his teams was losing at home to the Suns. Please, save me macho code crap. David Stern got this one wrong. In the last few years playoff basketball has been less game and more foul fest. NBA players somehow need to punch, undercut, smack, claw, and generally act like thugs to get to the top. Michael Jodan, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird never shied from physical play, but when they took their game to another level, it wasn’t with forearms and elbows. Stern should have recognized the play for what it was. Give Horry a temporary hook and understand that the bench rule, while important to keep the game civil, has to have some flexibility and interpretation.

The upshot is that Stern, with a little too much arrogance for my taste, completely disrupted the flow of the series. Maybe the Suns would have lost anyway, but why did the suspensions — which had some mitigating circumstances — carry the game weight they did. The Commish needs to look at the rule when he and the owners get together this summer in the overpriced hotel of their choice for league meetings.

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Just break the record, Barry. Like millions I’m completely ambivalent. I’ve never been a Bonds fan, even when was slim and trim and had a normal sized head. And yes, I agree, he’s not the only juicer in the bigs — he’s never admitted to using performance enhancing drugs nor has it been proven in court or a lab.

But his creep toward 755 has the nation holding its nose. In my mind, it’s more than steroids, too. I think part of it is Bonds’ abrasive personality and unwillingness to be a team guy. Fans know the difference. He doesn’t have to be Sean Casey, but as Ty Cobb suffered the consequences of his sometimes brutal personality, so it is with Bonds. The day after 756 leaves the yard, chances are good that Barry Bonds will be both a headline in history books and a footnote for the rest of the season of his most historic season.