WNBA first skirmish

So you think that only men in sports basketball are able to fight. Well for the first time in WNBA history the LA Sparks and Detroit Shock have gotten in a fist fight. In a report released by the Associated Press that Candace Parker started the brawl but WNBA's chief of basketball operations and player relations Renee Brown said that "In our opinion, Plenette was the aggressor,".

The skirmish started moments after Parker and Detroit's Cheryl Ford had to be separated after Ford fouled Parker. On the next possession, Parker got tangled up with Detroit's Plenette Pierson and fell to the ground. As she was getting up, Pierson intentionally ran into her, setting off the melee.

Parker threw a punch at Pierson before being tackled by Detroit's Deanna Nolan. Players and coaches from both teams joined in, and Mahorn knocked Lisa Leslie to the court at one point. "I was trying to protect the whole game, the integrity of the game," he said. "The WNBA is very special to me because I have four daughters. I don't even raise my hand to them, and I would never push a woman. This game, I love this game too much."

Mahorn was also involved in the 2004 Pistons-Pacers brawl while working as a Detroit broadcaster, going into the crowd to try to pull Ron Artest away from fans. "Rick Mahorn is known as a peacemaker, from even the brawl we had here with Indiana," Detroit coach Bill Laimbeer said. "He went out there to get people off the pile, and to get people to stop the confrontation. That's who he is, that's what he does."

Leslie did not talk to the media, but Los Angeles coach Michael Cooper also said he felt Mahorn was trying to stop the fight. "I think Rick was trying to play peacemaker, but he's just too big," Sparks coach Michael Cooper said. "I was only trying to grab my players, and I didn't see exactly what happened, but he apparently gently tried to push Lisa away."

DeLisha Milton-Jones shoved and punched Mahorn after the incident with Leslie, and was ejected, along with Mahorn, Parker and Pierson. Nolan and Shannon Bobbitt received technicals.

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"That was unfortunate, but things like that happen in basketball sometimes," Milton-Jones said. "The league is going to have to decide what kind of action to take."

Ford sprained her right knee while trying to restrain Pierson, and left the floor in a wheelchair. Her status is unknown.

"I'm glad that none of our players got hurt, and I hope that Cheryl is OK," Cooper said. The brawl marred a key victory for Los Angeles, which came in having lost four of five.

"This was a game we needed badly, and we won it," said Milton-Jones, who scored 19 points. "That's the important part, despite what happened at the end."