A voice of reason has emerged in the wake of the Denver Nuggets-New York Knicks punch party, and darned if it doesn’t belong to Steve Francis.

Well, we say “reason.” What Francis did was more akin to giving pause for thought. But that’s more than anyone else associated with this instantly infamous classic has managed.

What Francis told the New York Post is this: “In other sports, there are incidents that are way worse than basketball. So many worse things happen every game, or four or five times a year, but because there are more black players in the NBA, it’s under the microscope more than baseball or hockey.”

It’s an oversimplified account of reality, to be sure. But there is a racial component to the fallout from the brawl that cannot be denied.

There is backstory here. For decades there has been a racial divide between NBA players (mostly black) and the paying customers (largely white). That divide has become a flashpoint during the past 15 years, as the paying customers have been charged ever-higher prices for a ramped-up arena experience, and as sport and society have become more tolerant of individual expression. Never before have the players seemed so unlike the fans.

This divide is the top concern at the league office – even ahead of declining free-throw shooting and baggy shorts. For proof you need look no further than the league-wide dress code NBA commissioner David Stern imposed last season. It was an extraordinary step – he might as well have told the players, “Quit dressing like typical young, urban African-Americans. You’re scaring the fans.”

Stern’s dictum, clearly, was in reaction to the brawl two years ago between the Indiana Pacers and Detroit Pistons, which tsunamied its way several rows up into the stands. Now, almost precisely two years later, a repeat performance. The same ugly scene, with the same ugly fallout.

Francis has this much right: There was less of a furor when Marty McSorley was convicted for assault with a weapon and run out of the NHL for clocking Donald Brashear with a stick. Or when members of the Los Angeles Dodgers went into the Wrigley Field stands to go fist-to-chin with Cubs fans. Or even after October’s massive contretemps between the football teams from Miami and Florida International.

Where Francis errs is creating the impression that race is the only factor in play here. For one thing, hockey, baseball and football fans are separated from the action by walls, Plexiglas and, in some cases, great expanses of grass and dirt. A batter charging a pitcher doesn’t make for a great LeRoy Neiman moment, but it might as well be happening in another world where the fan in the stands is concerned.

Nothing separates NBA players from their fans. When those players, most of them literal giants, come crashing into the stands with malice in their eyes, that’s when worlds collide. The issue then becomes a great deal more color-blind.

Other dubious issues have been raised in the past few days. One is the notion that Denver was running up the score on New York by leaving its starters in a game that seemed safely won. You hear that in baseball and football, too. In every case, the answer is this: If you don’t want to be embarrassed, play better. Or pull your team off the floor. Concede defeat.

Knicks coach Isiah Thomas was caught on camera warning the Nuggets to quit driving to the hoop.