Sportsmanship or Gamesmanship?

I'd love to see an extension of the flagrant foul rule escalating the flagrant penalty (possibly immediate suspension w/o pay for a few games, and if you get, lets say somewhere around 3 or 4 in a given season you're suspended for a really large chunk of games w/o pay (say 25 or so).  This would obviously have to be used very sparingly, it has to be completely obvious that that player in question was absolutely trying to inflict harm - I'd also be pro tape reviews on any and all of these calls as a requirement).  A lesser flagrant that would be treated the way the current flagrant is treated.  This lesser flagrant would be applied when it is suspected that a player may have intentionally committed a foul that might have been the more severe flagrant but there isn't conclusive evidence suggesting that the offender was doing something that clearly crossed a line.  I'd site the recent foul on Joel committed by Shaq as a perfect example of this.  I don't know if he was trying to hurt Joel or not but suspect that the foul could have been much softer if Shaq had chosen to make it softer (still would have been a hard foul).

As for off the ball contact.  I'd apply the same rules to on and off the ball with regards to the intent to inflict discomfort or pain.

My take on how we should play, assuming the rules stay as they currently are I'd be very pro us playing in whatever way the league finds acceptable considering timing of our team.  What I mean by this is that right now I think it would not make much sense for us to be too tough off the ball because we won't get the calls until we mature a little bit more, but it's a balancing act, if the other team is really gritting it up, we shouldn't back down and should match their level of physical play.  If the rules are the same in a few years once we are getting more calls then I'd step up the toughness even more as a standard matter of practice.  I'm for making the most out of whatever rules the league has in place at the time.  

That said I still would like to see the penalties for a true, obviously inappropriate flagrant get much harsher.  To me this is the way to keep the whole league as healthy as possible, and account for the massive increase in physical strength that most players have today.  There will still be plenty of legitimate injuries that take people out of the game for extended periods of time... that's part of basketball.

I agree very much with drawingjeremy's opinion.  The hard part is proving intent.  Shaq's foul on Joel looked intentional - or rather the rough follow through did.  Could he have dropped the ball or made sure it didn't hit Joel's face?  I suspect "yes", but I don't know for sure.  I'd like to know if anyone in the NBA reviewed those scenes (and been a bug on the wall during the discussion.)  

Last night Raef committed a "hard foul" (according to the Mikes) and that's the kind I like to see the Blazer's make ... he used his entire body, not an arm or an elbow or a knee.  It wasn't intended to hurt the player, just get him out of the way.  I see way too many elbows to chins and knees to groins that look intentional and I would rather my team didn't play that way.  Let's win by our skill, not by our ability to incapacitate the opposition.  What "message" is the perp sending other than "I am a goon"?  Now a retaliatory (?) foul is something else - Magloire was good at that last year - you hurt my teammate so you must suffer too.  But, please Blazers, don't start it!  (I think Raef's foul last night was in retaliation for someone hitting one of our littler guys too hard.)