One thing that Stern could do is to force both of these teams to forfeit about 10 game each. It would cause the players to realize how endangered their season is if they let these situations get out of control, and they will better police themselves. The teammates should be allowed to come onto the floor to restrain their own team members. And if they get involved in the fight, there should be forfeitures handed out. That would probably stop a lot of this nonsense and keep it on the floor. The retaliation would come during the game, by individual players getting the payback. Stern has got to make a very definitive statement about this.
Ridiculous, all of the above. All contributed and each could have done something different to keep it from getting worse.
I dont even think those guys that got clocked on the floor really wanted to be there. I think they were kind of forced down there cause of the commotion. I think they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. When they got clocked it was just on.
That's INSANE! Holy crap. I saw someone say "What if this happened here in Houston?" Holy crap, being an usher at Reliant stadium, it's easier to control because not too many are willing to drop 10+ feet from the front row. In the NBA though, I could see how this could potentially go REALLY wrong REALLY fast for ushers. Assuming there's 1 person per section, and about 30 sections total (I think anyway, I'm making an estimate) that would have to be covered. There was NO WHERE NEAR the amount of security that should have been there. At the stadium, due to not having space constraints like an NBA court, we have about 25-30 people on the field covering about a 10 yard span between them. if anyone were to ever try to jump...by the time he got up out of his seat and jumped on the concrete wall...we'd have already had two guys moving toward his area, with the two adjacent to them moving in closer to them. Obviously, this would be impossible in an NBA Arena, mostly due to space constraints. Back to the actual brawl...The fans were f*cking r****ded for throwing stuff. Artest had no business going up there...from a business/team standpoint. But if I were already in an irate mood...compounded by having people throw beer at me, and you're in an unfamiliar place...well, not saying I would have jumped in the stands myself, cause for one, I'm 5'8 and would have my face caved in...but I can't really blame Artest totally on this. I think this is very similar to the Vernon Maxwell situation in 95, except to the NBA, they didn't have any valid evidence of the jackass provoking Max...NBA has tape of the jerks in Detroit throwing stuff at Artest. 6 games is plenty, maybe 7.
Yeah.. there's no clearly visible punch there.. but Artest charged into him .. very hard and got him in the head with his left hand
Yeah. I'm in the same boat. I'm not violent but I'm not going to get walked all over by people. I have some pride and even if I'm not the biggest guy but if people were throwing stuff at me and trying to hurt me, I'm going to fight back.
They play eachother 3 more times, twice in IND and once in DET. But if they make them forfeites, as in DET & IND don't get a win or loss for these 3 game it punishes Indiana more than DET because its 2 games in IND & only 1 in DET. I believe DET should be punished more that IND, but individually, IND players should get stiff suspensions (O'neal, Jackson, Artest) I only see Wallace getting suspended for the initial shove to Artest's face.
i cant believe how many sucker punches those fans threw. the only fans who didnt (the guys on court going after artest) had to make sure their buddies were around, and then still looked scared when they realized artest was coming after them. only after artest layed the guy out did his friend try the girl tackle. those have got to be some of the biggest p*ssies i have ever seen....beer muscles, indeed. the guy who apparently first threw the beer had his hands in his pockets when artest charged up into the stands like, "i didnt do anything!" what a bunch of castrati!!!!
Great point.... after thinking about this, I agree that EVERYONE (fans, players, security) all need some sort of penalty from the NBA.
Jim Gray is emotionally distraught. OMG! The poor guy who didn't even throw the cup but was charged at in the stands looked like that Cubs fan who stole the foul ball. He's famous.
Heres the vid of the guy who steped on the cour and got owned by Arest and Oneal. http://s92801878.onlinehome.us/joclocks.avi
