Basketball On The Internet.

TIME definitely provides perspective and almost two days removed from those alleged "wild west" scenes of "basketbrawl" at the aptly named Jungle on Friday might best serve for dispassionate review.

In the wake of Friday's night's post-game altercations, social media was frenzied with claims and counter-claims, emotional "sentences" being adjudicated at the supposed guilty parties.

So-and-so punched so-and-so. And here's a photograph to prove it!

Nice.

Thank goodness our courts don't operate on flimsy circumstantial evidence in the same way the tribal nature of our sports followers do.

So here's what we know, or should I say, most who have studied the videotape would for the most part agree with, and in no particular order:

Gary Ervin believes Greg Hire has "disrespected" the 36ers by taking (and making) a late three and tells him all about it as the players congregate for post-game handshakes. Gary is completely in the wrong and Greg completely in the right. (For starters, which idiot ever legislated that a team is obliged to dribble the clock out in a blow-out or where the result is determined? I hate that and always have. If I paid to see 40 minutes of action, I don't want it ended at 39:40. But I digress cause that is just a personal irrit.) When a season-series is tied at 2-2, points differential determines the highest-placed finisher if they should tie on win-loss record. Win by as many as you can.

James Ennis and Anthony Petrie either involve themselves in the previous situation and make it their very own or they just want to exchange unpleasantries over who knows what? An on-court altercation, a square-up for something (someone) else? Maybe Ennis' penchant for not shaking hands (a la Chris Goulding not that long ago) has got up Petrie's nose. So that one gets going.

Jimmy flails a left-arm shot in the general direction of Mitch Creek and Wildcats folks such as Damian Martin again are busy pushing the marquee import away from another potentially dangerous situation.

Joey Wright, having already done the post-game handshakes before this started to get out of hand, joins with his rival coaching staff in separating the players and trying to restore calm. Joey, the peacemaker, suddenly loses it after Perth second assistant Adam Tatalovich pushes Joey's arm back at him and gives him an alleged mouthful to go with it. Joey reacts by warding Tatalovich's arm back at him and getting into his face.

From that point, the swarm of confused, angry, innocents and guilties move as one as cooler heads try to pull protagonists away from shouting distance of each other.

"Basketbrawl"? 

Hardly. But headline writers LOVE to trot that out any/every time there's any sort of on-court altercation. I reckon it's time for "basket-biff" myself but never let a new idea get in front of a tried-and-true cliche.

Was it a good look for our sport?

Absolutely not. A head coach losing it is not a pretty sight but when he has gone from peacemaker to protagonist in a heartbeat, you know something else happened.

Was it prudent for Wildcats chief executive Nick Marvin to inflame Perth's fans with his tweet of a photograph allegedly showing Joey "punching" Tatalovich?

Make up your own mind but that comes over more as an emotional reaction than a professional one to me. But again, do we want to discourage passion?

I've seen GMs do sillier things during a post-game on-court fracas.

So what do we have now the dust has settled?

Any injuries? Wounds? Blood?

Nup. We have nationwide publicity - not good publicity but then, remember the saying: There's no such thing as bad publicity - that the NBL couldn't have paid for.

Do we condone it?

No.

Does anyone regret it happening?

Go on now. Did it add something toward restoring the rivalry to its former past glories?

Did anyone get hurt?

Well, yes. The idea of post-game sportsmanship definitely suffered.

But the righteousness of some of the accusations and nonsense is gobsmacking. Footballers run onto a field and start niggling their opponents even before the siren to start a game. No-one bats an eyelid.

My take on this is that the NBL will - and should - reprimand a few of the key people, with fines the most likely outcome.

Marvin has said perhaps the post-game handshake ritual should be abandoned given its potential for hazard.

NBL CEO Fraser Neill has responded by saying what a shame it would be if the league had to legislate to prevent a simple post-game act of sportsmanship.

There are few handshakes after an NBA game, except when a playoff series is over, both teams usually filing off the floor in opposite directions.

What a shame if that's where this leads us. But few clubs are blameless. I know Adelaide, for example, had an assistant coach in the not-too-distant-past who regularly agitated opposition coaching staffs and players with his arrogant post-game handshake comments.

Passion is one thing. Being a jerk is another. Unfortunately, you can't legislate to curtail either. So maybe the coaches, who are always gracious, should go ahead and shake and the players do it if they wish.

And let's mark March 14 on the calendar for the fourth Adelaide-Perth game.