Artest suspension (UPDATE: Artest out for the season)

Its entirely possible he is going to be punished but we just haven't heard yet.

 

I could have sworn he was on the court when that happened........???

 

why do people keep saying o'neal felt threatened? he wasn't defending himself, he was hitting a guy that attacked artest. plain and simple. say he was going overboard or whatever, but stop saying it was to defend himself. the guy freakin' came on the court and attacked artest. it was just another part of the fight and o'neal was going over to stop it (and damn did he stop it).

 

If the Rockets trade for Artest next year we'll definately need to bring in Phil Jackson.

 

Like I said before, you want to act like a tough guy then you should be treated like one. Artest deserved everything he got and I hope his rap ambitions fail as well.


Great job, David Stern. Now get to work on all those ticky-tac fouls on Yao.

 

the guy wasn't a threat to Artest or O'Neal ........and I think thats what the NBA saw

 

TMac, a cooler head? I think someone's forgotten his outbursts and retaliations in the past before...

Heck, he cheap-shotted someone a couple of seasons back on a hard foul. Not to mention his outbursts to the media this past offseason, during last year, when he left Toronto, and so on.

Yao yes, but TMac? Heavens no.

 

i realize he was just getting up from something else but he did go after artest, no? he and his fat friend both went at artest. o'neal saw this extra fight break out and went over. too bad for the guy that he was just getting up from something else but he had no right to be there and every reason to expect to get the hell beat out of him for taking it to nba players. that's his bad and o'neal made sure he wouldn't do anything else to artest. the only reason he wasn't a threat was he was just getting up. who says if o'neal doesn't deck him that he doesn't go back to do something else. that's my main point. it wasn't just a cheap shot for target practice, it had a reason.

 

Those 3 Pacers :Artest, O'neal, Jackson will lose a combined salary between 10-12 miillions.I guess you can take a player out of the ghetto, but you can't take the ghetto out of a player!

 

I think O'Neal's punishment was excessive, but you had to know that anyone that punched a fan was going to get it bad. I also wonder if Stern purposefully "padded" the suspensions so that Billy Hunter & Co couldn't completely overturn the punishments (see: Spree's punishment for the chocking incident.)

My only concern is that the Detroit fans are appropriately punished. I fired off an email to Stern and Granick yesterday morning about that. I was encouraged by Stern's press conference; in particular, when he said that the league might losee some fans because of their response but he was okay with that. Not something many people expected.

Stern did say that he wouldn't consider the soccer response of having Dtroit playing in front of an empty arena.

Evan

 

So O'neal was protecting Artest who was attacked by a fan you say. So the chubby guy is standing in front of Artest who then proceeds to pound chubby dude. O'neal rushes in from a good distance to then finish him off. If that's your definition of Artest "getting attacked" then yes, he was definitely attacked.

 

yup ...reason was "retaliation" ...it was quite obvious IMO

 

O'Neal hit a different guy. First one was wearing a hat and caught Ron's fists with his mug. Second guy half tackled Ron from the side, and was trying to get up when O'Neal flew in and slugged him.

Evan

 

question: does the money that the suspended players lose go back into the Pacers' owners pockets or is it donated to charity like NBA fines are?

 

Yeah that's a lot of money...like 8 Million total dollars

 

So why the need to blindside the man while on his knees? Oh, that's right..he was attacking Artest. When I saw that cheap shot all that came to mind was Kermit's punch to Rudy. Same sucker punch.

 

isn't that what i said, retaliating for attacking artest and to keep him off artest? it's bad he got hit that hard but too damn bad. i don't even like artest, but two fans can't go after him and expect nothing.

If that's your definition of Artest "getting attacked" then yes, he was definitely attacked.

wait, are you actually arguing artest was attacked? the guy friggin' came up to him like he wanted to fight. what's artest gonna do in the middle of a riot (even if it's his fault it started) when someone comes up like they wanna fight? ask him what his intentions are or hit him and make sure he doesn't get hit first? and o'neal didnt hit the same guy. he hit the idiot's friend who grabbed artest after the initial confrontation with the other guy.


and proof there is no justice in the world. the punkass pistons should've lost to charlotte being down 5 with 25 seconds left but sheed hits a 3, CHA misses a ft, and sheed drains another 3 and now they're going to OT. but you've gotta credit the pistons' fans. they haven't thrown anything on anyone or rioted yet.

 

on ESPN, you can vote about the suspensions. right now it seems to be heavily slanted toward just right or too harsh. the fact there is so little "too light" tells me the suspension is too harsh.

 

Absolutely devastating for the Pacers. All I can say is no player will ever be going into the stands again. Ever.

 

he was no longer a threat to be on Artest!!! why can't you see that?

lol

there was about 3 security guys right on top of him and there were 2 or 3 Pacers around Artest ....the threat was eliminated