rapid fire dialogue on detroit disaster
heated discussion on the big pacer/piston brawl over at the swamp.
a couple of my thoughts i’ve posted over there:
saw this live and it was the worst freaking thing i’ve seen in sports. it’s akin to the fans coming onto the field the last couple of years in baseball, but this is even worse. why? because this was more than just one or two ‘necks on the field against 50 some-odd baseball players.
this was dozens of fans against 12 nba players. beverages thrown. punches thrown. chairs thrown.
the guy in the white hat needs to do time.
ugly ugly ugly.
…
-the crew in studio was a bit too pro-player. as a professional athlete, you are held to a higher standard, and that has to be acknowledged. i.e. players are meant to hold higher restraint even in the case of tonight’s event. that said, i can empathize with artest. i wonder how this situation is (will be?) worded in the rulebook.
-jackson definitely thought he was defending artest, but yeah, it’s like the rule of not allowed to leave the bench during a fight. it may be instinctual to attack to defend, it’s not ideal in the grand scheme of things.
-wallace overacting, artest laying on the table, wallace throwing the towel… none of this is all that relevant. if it doesn’t get into the crowd, this is no different than 100s of other nba fights. sure, the wallace throwing the towel probably encouraged the fan to throw the cup, but that’s the irrational punk fan mentality again. throwing the cup is non-justifiable…period.
big winner: the dude in the black shirt who artest & jackson mistakenly identified as the “cup-thrower". he’s gonna collect at least 1/2 a mil.
big loser: us…! it means artest’s album is going to get that much more play…ugh!
…
christmas day of rematches:
wallace v. artest shaq v. kobe
i laughed when shaq said it’ll be the most watched game in history. turns out he may have a strong case for this doubleheader.
the nba is fannnntastic!
…
the player union contract with the league has to spell all of this out. under no circumstances should a player be justified in going into the stands.
security needs to be stronger, and penalties need to be much harsher for abusive fans. it’s inexcusable for players to get hit with things, but there needs to be an acknowledgement that it’s going to happen once in a blue moon. it’s typically a pride injury, and not a physical one, a drawback to the job. likeweise, there needs to be “fan law” that states a significant minimum penalty for chucking beers or batteries at players’ noggins.
rookies coming into the league need to know how to behave if in the same situation as artest was tonight. they need to know that the fan is going to be charged, and probably go to jail for a long time, and that if they go into the crowd, their suspension will be X number of months/years at a minimum. it’s gotta match the prospective risk of a full scale arena riot against 12 nba players.
freaking artest…! made me miss all-time hottie terri hatcher on leno.