According to another source: Report: Artest suspended 30 games, Jackson, O'Neal get 20 http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=brawlsuspensions&prov=st&type=lgns DETROIT (Ticker) - It appears the Indiana Pacers will pay a heavy price for Friday's embarrassing melee. WDIV-TV is reporting that Ron Artest of the Pacers will be suspended for 30 games and teammates Jermaine O'Neal and Stephen Jackson will be suspended 20 games apiece for their roles in Friday's ugly brawl against the Detroit Pistons that saw players taking on fans both on and off the court. According to WDIV, center Ben Wallace of the Pistons will be banned for five games. Calling it a "humiliation for everyone associated with the NBA," commissioner David Stern announced Saturday that Artest, O'Neal, Jackson and Wallace have been suspended indefinitely. Stern is expected to specifically announce the length of suspensions for each player by Sunday night. Jackson, Artest and O'Neal all landed their share of punches in the Pacers' 97-82 victory over the Pistons, a game that had to be called with 45 seconds remaining. Reacting to fans who had thrown everything from plastic bottles to chairs at them, Jackson, Artest and O'Neal, among others, went into the stands to retaliate. Stern issued a statement Saturday. "The events at last night's (Friday) game were shocking, repulsive and inexcusable - a humiliation for everyone associated with the NBA," the statement said. "This demonstrates why our players must not enter the stands whatever the provocation of poisonous behavior of people attending the games." In addition to the actions of the league, players also are facing the possibility of arrests. Jackson climbed into the seats and landed a roundhouse right that floored a fan next to another fan who had thrown a plastic beer bottle at Artest, hitting him in the face. Fans continued to throw things and verbally accost members of the Pacers. Several came onto the court and one took a fighting stance against Artest, who dropped him with a punch. O'Neal ran over and floored another fan with a righthanded blow. "That was the ugliest thing I've ever seen in my life as a coach or player," Pistons coach Larry Brown said Friday. "I'm just embarrassed for our league and disappointed being a part of this with young people seeing that." Detroit forward Rasheed Wallace and radio announcer Rick Mahorn went into the stands to try to break things up. Referee Tommy Nunez Jr. was clipped in the head with a thrown bottle, opening a cut. The game was called, which forced the Pacers to make their way through a gauntlet of angry fans who continued to throw objects despite pleas from Brown. Players and team officials were showered with beer, soda and popcorn. No players from either team spoke with the media. With 45 seconds left, Artest fouled Wallace, who clearly overreacted and shoved Artest with a chokehold. Artest walked away but was followed by Wallace, who had to be restrained. While players from both teams jawed at each other and order was being restored, Artest lay down on the scorer's table when he was hit with the bottle, and the Palace looked like a prison riot.
Making things even stranger. Perhaps one of the greater headcases in league history, and one of the Bad Boys trying to stop the fighting. Stern hit it dead on. This was a humiliation for the NBA.
Yes. But the NBA will sue them back for trespassing in the first place. They shouldn't have been on the court trying to start a fight with Artest. They knew the situation was heated. Yet, they still came on the court? Bad Fat boy's! Bad!
I believe that Artest shouldn't have gone into the stands and punched/grabbed the fan. That much is clear. But think about this. During a heated confrontation on the court; After Wallace pushed Artest. The fans should never exacerbate the situation by throwing an object at the players in question. It's heated enough. It's like two gangs facing each other down, with guns pulled, but no one doing anything! Then, some pedestrian yells "Bang!" They are the catalyst to a bad situation. The one that threw the object is the one that incited the riot! That fan basically yelled "fire" in a crowded theater. The act of yelling "fire" (or throwing the PLASTIC bottle) is not the problem. It's the heated situation + what the act causes afterwards, that's the problem.
What I think is funny is that (from what early reports are indicating) is that Artest will be suspended for 30 games. Well, if you include last nights game vs. Orlando, the 30th game will be Jan 22 vs. Washington. Here's where it gets funny... Artest's first game back will be @ Boston Jan 26thand his second game back... at home... vs DETROIT So, if pending reports about the suspension are correct, set your tivo's boys... for Jan 26th.
zzzz how many times have we heard that now? I feel for Ron Artest tho I hope ben wallace and those detroit fans get their a$$es beat.
I have to disagree with this not being preventable with better security. This isn’t even the first time this year that professional athletes have gone into the stands of an opposing arena. What’s the difference? In both of the baseball situations this season, the security quickly defused the situation. Security has to get a lot of blame for the situation turning from a fight into a riot.
Does NBA allow Pacers to add more players to their active roster? Because I think it will be crazy they only have five players ready for next 20 games.
I completely agree. Yet, there is nothing anyone can do to prevent it. Thats why it happens, and happens often in places like PacBell/Candlestick Park, Wrigley Field, etc. Security can't control every individual fan from throwing something. Its impossible, no matter how many people are made examples of. I think NBA players, have to assume that a bottle throwing incident will be isolated and handled by security. Its not the bottle throwing that starts the riot, its the retaliation in this case.
there were so many chances for the situation to be stopped if only one person would have used some self-control. first of all, artest shouldn't have thrown the elbow into the foul. ben wallace should have walked away when artest fouled him. artest tried to cool down, yet when he lost his temper at the moment the cup hit him in the face, he showed that the cool down bit was only an act. the fan never should have thrown the cup...i just wish someone at the game could have controled themselves!
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I dont see how his cool down was only an "act". You implying that he had an alterior motive to cool down, since he was "acting." Was artest planning to fake that was cooled down and attack wallace when his guard was down? Artest is the most volatile player in the NBA and everyone knows that, including the fan. Drunk or not the fan should have known artest wasnt going to take it well. Player confrontations happen all the time within the course of a game and artest more then anybody should know how to handle it and he did. The last thing he needs is a dumbass fan throwing a cup of beer at his face. All these players play on aderenaline and you cant expect them to stop and think everything through. Its all human behavior, a natural reaction, to retaliate against a threatening behavior, even if its just a cup of water or beer. Everyone holds all these athletes at such a high and unattainable level. What does the NBA expect when they take kids from such a harsh background, where some of us wouldnt even survive a day, and puts them in NBA. You cant expect some these athletes to become role models and an image of the NBA, they play the game so they can get paid not because they want to be famous or anything. Ben Wallace deserves as much blame as anybody did for this mess. Artest may have technically started it by going to into the stands,but fans always react to what the players do. Would we have booed karl malone last year if steve didnt give malone a shove (probably would have anyway since its malone), the replays showed malone didnt undercut boki. You think the detroit fans wouldnt have gotten all rowdy if Ben Wallace didnt over react and make a hard foul bigger then what it was. Wallace made it look like artest was trying to end his career or something with all the yelling and throwing stuff. It would have just been a hardfoul and maybe two free throws if wallace didnt overreact.
TRESPASSING???? ROFLMAO !!! The NBA would be wise to just let the lawsuits happen....they would never SUE a fan..that is simply ridiculous. No one deserves to get cold cocked by a running Jermaine O'neal no matter what they did. Artest laid down because Wallace would have wupped his A$$, as soon as he had someone smaller than him to be angry about he transfered his anger...the dude is a loose cannon...I hope he never plays in the NBA again. DD DD
artest was in no way trying to cool down by laying on the scorers table. i think he was just trying to draw even more attention to himself by doing that. if he really wanted to put an end to the altercation he could have walked to another spot on the court, not lay down as close to the fans as he could get. artest is a prick and he always will be. he probly wants the time off anyway.
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_y...bQ--?slug=ap-sternstatement&prov=ap&type=lgns NBA Commissioner David Stern's statement on suspensions November 21, 2004 NBA Commissioner David Stern's statement accompanying the announcement of suspensions for Friday night's Pacers-Pistons brawl: ``The penalties issued today deal only with one aspect of this incident -- that of player misconduct. The actions of the players involved wildly exceeded the professionalism and self-control that should fairly be expected from NBA players. We must affirm that the NBA will strive to exemplify the best that can be offered by professional sports, and not allow our sport to be debased by what seem to be declining expectations for behavior of fans and athletes alike. ``There are other issues that the NBA must urgently focus on at this time. First, we must redefine the bounds of acceptable conduct for fans attending our games and resolve to permanently exclude those who overstep those bounds. Participants in and around the court must be assured complete protection from unacceptable fan behavior. Second, we must re-examine the adequacy of our current security procedures in Detroit and our other 28 arenas. The actions at Friday's game, though unprecedented, must now be factored into all efforts to guarantee the well-being of our fans. Third, we must develop and implement new NBA rules to assure that the unavoidable confrontations likely to occur in the heat of competition are not allowed to escalate to the level we witnessed on Friday even prior to the egregious behavior by individuals in the stands.''
Let me remind you, the foul was not that hard. It was hardly flagrant. If you had watched the game, you would know that on a previous posession Wallace pushed Artest into the the goal post. That push was a lot harder than Artest foul on Wallace. Should Artest have fouled? No, but that is what the NBA is. It is a professional league and the players keep score on all that stuff. Artest should be gone for the season, I agree with what Stern did. His actions jumping into the stands are unacceptable. But Big Ben should be gone for for a long time, minimum 20 games. His retaliation should have been in the game, maybe some talk, whatever. But to start a melee with a minute left in the game, when he dishes out a whole lot of junk throughout the season that is ten times worse than the foul that Artest put on him, is unacceptable also. Wallace should be gone for a long period of time. He is a thug. Good ballplayer yes, so is Artest. But both of them deserve long suspensions. Artest suspension was long enough. Wallaces isnt.
Apparently, you didn't watch the game because your statement is flat out false. Not even close to what actually happened. Wallace didn't push Artest, he went straight up to block Artest's shot and hit Artest's hand and Artest momentum after caused him to fall down and into the basket support. The only contact on the play was Wallace's hand to Artest's hand while trying to block the shot. Here is a link to the vid of that play: http://207.218.250.41/videos/2004-2005/UpdateOnPacerBrawl112004.avi That wasn't even remotely comparable to Artest two handled shove in the back/neck where he wasn't even going for the ball. Not even close.
