Some dickhead fan proceeds to chuck a full cup of beer at Artest. Artest gets up and starts CHARGING into the stands. Punching and pushing people out the way, he reaches the fan that is 3 rows back. He proceeds to lay the smack down on this dude who is just plain laughing at him. Artest is then restrained by 3 fans and is totally outnumbered. Another fan decides to shower Artest with some more beer. Stephen Jackson of the Pacers has also come to support Artest and throws some haymakers at that fan. Guys from both teams are in the stands trying to break up the fight. Stuff is just flying from everywhere, including a chair.
Artest gets pulled out of that fight and starts walking onto the court. Another fan decides to walk up to him ON THE COURT with another mate all macho with his fists clenched. Ron Ron then clocks him with a killer right hand that would have stunned any mortal man. The fan falls to the ground and gets back up. Jermain O'Neal runs in from nowhere and throws the biggest cheap shot i have ever seen, with a running right handed fist. Some dude in a suit (who must have been a pacers player) throws another punch at the guy for good measure.
The Refs in their wisdom decide to cancel the game.
I was talking to Tim about it, who saw the game live, said it was the most shocking incident that he had ever seen in sports. I 'd have to say it overtakes the Eric Cantona incident where he decides to do a flying Liu Kang kick at some fan that started abusing him. This is the most craziest thing i have ever seen.
You just don't mess with Artest who is a hot headed pshycho to begin with. But he is to blame for taking this incident to the next level by confronting the fan. He could have easily walked away from this incident. He took the law into his own hands and sought vengenance. It was not self defence. Stephen Jackson didn't need to join in either. He could have broken up the fight. But I do sympathise with the players, particulary Artest. You just don't take that sh#t from anyone but he should have been smart enough to walk away. He was smart enough not to take on Ben Wallace as he just back pedaled out of there.
Artest, Jackson, and JO need to understand that they are role models for little kids, whether they like it or not. Sure you can blame security for not having the whole place secure and undercontrol but you can't prevent this kind of thing happening. People can chuck stuff from anywhere in the stands. But you've got to be the bigger man and walk away from it.
Ya'll need to check the ESPN website and watch the incident on ESPN motion. Sports fans are totally divided on this issue. Some blame the players, the referees, and the security.
I know I shouldn't be saying this, but what about my fantasy NBA team? I've got Ron Artest, JO and Jackson on my squad? What's a GM to do?!!
I'm not sure what the appropriate penalty is for this fight. Some are calling Artest to be banned for 10-15 games, some say for a year. Being Judge Ho, I'd sentence him to a year long ban. I know that the fan started it but Artest should know better.
Tell me what you think peoples!
6 comments:
I saw this on ESPN and was totally shocked by it. I think a 10-15 game suspension without pay for Artest, O'Neal and Jackson would be sufficient. Artest went to chill out and not get in trouble by lying down on the scorer's table (the right thing to do), a fan stepped way over the line and purposely provoked him. Artest may have over reacted but it wasn't unjustified. That fan that ran onto the court got what he deserved.
I agree that once the fans stepped onto the court, the players had to defend themselves. They were on the players turf.
i tell you what was funny though, apparently as the Pacers players were rushing off the court, Jamal Tinsley rushed back with a dustpan looking to do some damage. That's just ghetto fighting, grabbing anything off the street. That's how crazy it was.
Hey DJ Ho, this is Howard. Couldn't be bothered to sign up so writing anonymously (well, not anymore)...
As you may well be aware, I have been the biggest, most massive Pacers fan since 1993, so I have to give my take on the whole series of unfortunate events surrounding the Pacers-Pistons game. I watched that game live with my girlfriend and my heart sank as I watched the Pacers throw their promising season down the drain. Now it's time to dish out some blame.
Firstly, I've lost some serious respect for Ben Wallace. He started the whole thing by being a sore loser - the foul was not all that bad by NBA standards - he was just pissed off because the Pacers had just thrashed them on their home floor and instead of getting an easy two points he was going to be clunking two shots at the line. But the main reason I lost respect for him is from the interview I saw of him after the game saying that he didn't start it and acted like he had nothing to do with it. According to him, he just "plays the game" - which I guess means delivering two handed shoves to players' faces when you can't take losing.
Ron Artest. I seriously feel he has been a victim of the bad boy reputation he has built for himself, and because of that, he has no one else to blame but himself. I thought 30 games, max, but somewhere in the back of my mind I felt it was going to be much worse, and it turned out to be the worst punishment EVER. Now let's put this incident in perspective. As much as I love him, Artest is a twit. You just don't go off into the stands. But there are so many mitigating circumstances here - he did not start the physical violence (it was Wallace and then the fan); while he grabbed and shoved the fan, he did not start throwing punches until he was punched (from behind, might I add); despite what the fan said, the video footage cleared showed the dude shouting at Artest and gesturing for him to come up. Taking these circumstances into account, plus the fact that a precedent existed - Mad Max Vernon Maxwell got 10 games and a $20,000 for decking a fan in the stands in 1995, banning him for the whole season just doesn't seem proportionate to the crime. Yes, Artest has had former suspensions, but none involving altercations with fans. If it had been KG or Duncan or Shaq that had punched a fan (or if Kobe had raped a fan during a timeout or something), there is no way the NBA suspends them for more than 20 games.
Stephen Jackson. He deserved it. I doubt Artest would have gotten this type of punishment had Jackson not raced into the stands and started throwing punches instead of holding Artest back, thus inflaming the situation much further. I felt in some ways he was more culpable.
Jermaine O'Neal. I still say you can't punch a fan, but when a fan illegally comes onto the players' domain (the court) looking for a fight, they can't complain if they get decked. Which is why I felt Jermaine should have gotten 10 games max for slide-punching one of the two hobbits that rolled onto the floor that night.
Last but not least, the Pistons fans. It's amazing that David Stern has done nothing substantial about it yet (maybe because they are the ones paying his income), but these fans were just deplorable. Food, drinks, cups, bottles, chairs and who knows what else. A referee had to get stitches in the head after getting hit by a bottle. It disgusts me how fans feel like they can verbally and physically asault players simply because they paid a few dollars for a ticket. Keep in mind that these punks would run away with their tails between their legs if they were ever confronted by one of these players in the streets - these cowards only dared to throw things from afar and punch players from behind, and they outnumbered them 20 to 1.
Now that I've got that off my chest, good work on the diaries DJ Ho, even though you recently dissed my main man Jamaal Tinsley!
i think you had a lot of things to get off your chest! i agree with several of your points. The NBA had to react the way that they did. They had to set a precedent that would deter any kind of that conduct in the future. I really feel sorry for Artest. ALthough I said he should get one year ban, I never actually thought it would happen.
Ben Wallace is a idiot. I saw that interview too and he was all casual about it. My understnading from reading match reports was that Wallace was getting banged up all nite, and reacted very badly to a foul in the last 45 seconds. In the interview he's like you don't commit that kinda foul at that stage. But the thing is, it's not illegal to commit that kinda foul, he just felt disrespected and thought that Artest was going for his head.
I think there are only losers from that incident. The players have to hold their head in shame from all that as well as the fans.
And i'll also stick to my view that tinsely is crap. He doesn't deserve $50mill or whatever extraodinary amount they paid him. They could have kept MY MAN PRIMOS PREZEC who is tearing it up at the moment. They could have had a decent centre to go with JO and artest. That would have been a killer lineup.
Now Tinsley has a golden opportunity to prove that he's worth his $50mil paycheck.
He better, cause he's on my fantasy team and i'm keeping him becoz he's the only decent player on that squad. To take advatnage of these suspensions, I have also added Fred JOnes, David Harrison, Austin Croshere, and I need to dump Artest and JO from my teams.
Couldn't these guys have thought about these fantasy implications b4 they jumped into the fight?
Post a Comment