Pacers-Pistons Brawl

[lightblue]

Supposedly the fans were yelling racial slurs, which in my view means they were asking for a good kicking anyway.

[Guynemer]

Excellent column on ESPN.com:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/columns/story?columnist=ratto_ray&id=1927360

Here's the best idea for punishment I've heard:

What ought to happen is simple, and comprehensive. The Pacers involved get real suspensions – long, staggered and without pay. The Pistons get fined several million dollars for their security lapses, even though this was your basic unforeseeable situation. The teams play their next game in an empty arena, while paying all arena personnel as though they had worked that day, and then make sizable contributions to anti-violence charitable groups in their towns. And the fans involved are identified, found, stripped of their season tickets (if applicable) and charged with as much as the law will allow.

[Jac de Molay]

Originally posted by David Floyd
Well, the fans were throwing **** - I mean, if you throw a cup of beer on my you better be ready for the ****ing thunder.

Jackie Robinson was peppered with innumerable taunts, objects, and racial slurs when he broke the color barrier in baseball, and didn't raise a hand to anybody.

That doesn't excuse or mitigate what the fan did, and the police will deal with him accordingly. But Artest AND O'Neal AND Jackson are professionals who acted anything but. Inexcusable.

[Guynemer]

I haven't heard or read anything about racial taunts; where is that info coming from?

[Tuberski]

The players, especially Stephen Jackson, should be charged with as much as the law will allow also.

Screw that play in an empty arena crap.

I'm not saying the fans shouldn't be charged, but if you don't charge the players with anything, what's to keep the next idiot from going into the stands?

ACK!

[asleepathewheel]

Ugly

I can't wait to hear the talk radio here in Indy on Monday!

I felt so sad seeing some crying pre-teens, being held by their fathers and older brothers. You pay to see a game, and then this!

Ron Artest + Red Neck Fans who think they are better than him = Disaster

[Wycoff]

Originally posted by lightblue
Supposedly the fans were yelling racial slurs, which in my view means they were asking for a good kicking anyway.

I don't believe that at all. If a white fan was yelling racial slurs he wouldn't have time to worry about the players, because he'd get pummeled by the thousands and thousands of black fans in the stands with him. Just because its a riot in the US doesn't mean that it was a race riot.

[lightblue]

Originally posted by Guynemer
I haven't heard or read anything about racial taunts; where is that info coming from?

The video thingy on espn.com: http://sports.espn.go.com/broadband/...videos=1927343

[lightblue]

BTW for those haven't seen it:

http://mfile.akamai.com/12942/wmv/vod.ibsys.com/2004/1120/3935750.200k.asx

[Pekka]

Ok watched both clips... I thought it would be wilder, but I guess not.. Still, pretty wild!

The Artest guy, I don't know if he was the main perpetrator in this like the articles have made it sound. I'd say it was the guy on the other team that pushed him in the face. He clearly reacted violently and followed it through.

The guy throwing beer at someones head, well he was asking for it.

And the guy who came to the floor, in Artest's face, he was clearly asking for it, the way it is in heated situation and you voluntarily come down to his face, that's the same as you're coming to kick his ass, even if you're not. The message is the same. Artest had little opportunity than strike IMO. he did the right thing. The beer throwing, maybe he should have kept his cool though.. but the guy on the floor, deserved it 100% no other way around it.

But of course when you go to the audience throwing bombs, you also will get some as happened in this one. Fortunately it looked like no one got really hurt at all. Though it would be impossible to predict what happened when the game was over outside the arena when people were still pretty angry...

But I'd say the guy who started it was the guy who pushed the other guys face, evevn though he was pushed first what was a foul. I don't know a lot about basketball, but that's what my eyes told me.

[Pekka]

There's few hockey classics, like the one where this dude throws beer at Tie Domi who is in the penalty box, and then somehow falls into the penalty box ... but Domi really doesn't man handle him even when I thought he would. That was priceless, what an idiot! Throwing beer at someone and then diving into the penalty box with the guy, what do you expect to happen?!?!?

[The Mad Monk]

It looked like Artest was going after a particular fan after the beer toss, but the way he was lying I don't see how he could have known which one it was.

[Tis I]

Artest went after the wrong guy. The one in the white hat standing next to the guy who got his ass kicked actually threw the beer.

[Combat Ingrid]

Wow! Sports CAN be fun

[mrmitchell]

It's okay to be a hooligan.

It's okay to get a little rowdy.

It's not okay to throw stuff.

It's not okay for players to get involved.

It's not okay for anyone to get in a physical fight.

Jesus Christ, I thought all this would be common sense to people.

Some day, though, someone will end up dead at courtside, or rinkside, or the sideline, or in the tunnel, and then we'll all wonder how it could have come to such a horrible end.