Punk of the Night: formerly Amir Johnson, now DeMarcus Cousins

While recently tweeting about more NBA happenings of the night, I came to the realization that the hash-tag I use most commonly is probably #punk.  It gave me the novel idea that I need to start giving out a “Punk of the Night,” award.  The league is full of punks, and they deserve recognition for their behavior.

If this idea had struck me at the start of the season then the first award would have surely gone to Thomas Robinson for his vicious elbow on Jonas Jerebko, and for having the nerve to say that JJ flopped after the hit.  Since I missed out on that one, the inaugural Punk of the Night award goes to the Toronto Raptor’s Amir Johnson.

During the third quarter of Monday night’s game against the Portland Trail Blazer’s, Amir appeared to try to take the ball away from referee David Jones while debating a foul call after JJ Hickson sunk his first free throw.  Jones subsequently threw Johnson from the game for his actions.  Instead of walking off the court, Johnson continued to walk towards Jones while being held back by his teammates.  Before finally exiting the court, Johnson made sure to add a touch of class to the incident by throwing his mouth guard at Jones.  The full scene can be watched here.

Johnson came into the league straight out of high school (the last player to ever do so) in 2005.  Based on the little show he put on in Portland it doesn't seem like his maturity level has developed much since then.  I already considered most guys in the NBA with mohawks to be punks (case and point), and Amir Johnson making a fool of himself kind of proved that point a little further for me.

Having watched Amir back in his days with the Pistons, this doesn't seem very typical of him.  We all do have our blow-up moments, he just let this one go way too far.

I’ll continue keeping track of the punks throughout the league this season though.  At the end of the year, I’m going to give out the first ever “Ron Artest Award,” to the biggest punk of the 2012-13 NBA season.  And don’t worry, Thomas Robinson; your name still gets to go on the ballot.

EDIT: I'm taking back the inaugural Punk of the Night Award from Amir Johnson.  Instead it goes to DeMarcus Cousins for throwing a blow below the belt at O.J. Mayo in the Kings' loss to the Mavericks.  Cousins has the potential to be one of the best big men in the league, but with his current maturity level (he already served a suspension this season for arguing with a commentator) he likely will not be seeing much success in the NBA.  Somebody really needs to teach these Sacramento Kings some anger management.