I haven't read any of this, but here are my thoughts.... In my opinion, the Pistons' Organization takes the full blame for this. First of all, Wallace shouldn't have done anything to retaliate. Second of all, their fans are absolutely r****ded and disgraceful. I don't blame the Pacers players one bit. In my opinion, the only people who should get suspended are Artest and Wallace for the original fight, with Wallace getting the greater penalty. Also, Detroit should have some home games taken away (5-10, in my opinion) while they get their security issues straight. It's one thing to go into the stands unprovoked, but when someone throws something and hits you in the face, there's no blaming you for going after someone. As far as the teammates go, I don't blame any of them. Personally, if my teammates were in danger of being attacked by a huge mob of fans, I'd defend them, too. Jermaine O'neal and Stephen Jackson have earned lifetime respect points from me. And if I were larry Brown, I would have bashed the hell out of the fans in that little media statement.
UNFRIGGINBELIEVABLE. i couldn't believe this when i saw it. i am very interested to see what stern does. he'll have the players association on his ass if he tries to punish too much but stern usually gets what he wants. on the one hand, he could send a huge statement and give out some enormous suspensions to o'neal and stephen jackson for decking two fans and a real big one to artest and slightly smaller but big ones to those who went into the stands, even as peacekeepers. hopefully, he doesn't do that. ben wallace should only get whatever suspension you get for shoving a guy like that, 1 or 2 games. he clearly didn't make the fans start fighting with artest and he jumped into to try and stop it once it got crazy. rasheed looked innocent. you know things are crazy when rasheed is the cool-headed guy. artest, i don't know what to do. you can't go into the stands but i basically think he was justified. hopefully we're only looking at 3 or 4 games. stephen jackson was just wailing on people. he had the best moment. some fan tries to sneak in like a b**** and throw beer on the artest group and jackson sees him and just nails him and then the fan is just reeling with his hands up like please don't hit me, i'm a wuss, leave me alone. o'neal had the best punch of the night. the guy artest faced up with didn't really get hit much by artest but o'neal just came and finished him off. i'm trying to imagine an NBA power forward leaning into a punch and catching someone square. that had to hurt. that guy went down hard. and then the fans were just throwing stuff in from everywhere on o'neal as he left. i have to say this was very entertaining from afar. i hope massive suspensions aren't levied but i can see it happening. stern has been known to make a point and be protective of the league's image. it could be bad.
That guy got more than he bargained for. He probably thought he could get in some cheap shots, but then found himself face to face with 6' 7" 247 LB Ron Artest and he shatt himself.
For 6 million dollars a year, you can throw a piano at me. 6 Millions reasons for Artest to show some form of restraint. I have pride, but 6 millions dollars can go a long way. I could order takeout, and work on my rap album for years to come.
I'm not a tough guy or anything like that and I sure would have been scared if I was around the area but did you guys see Jim Gray doing his recap in Nba Fastbreak- dude was about to break into tears. Mental note to Jim Gray- no one's out to harm you, well maybe Pete Rose, but he has plenty of problems himself.
That's the dumbest argument ever! Who gives a damn about the money, you protect yourself, you're not thinking about money when someone chunks a beer bottle at you. He gets paid his money to play basketball, not to get beer thrown at you...
That guy deserved it too. He was up to no good coming on the court. So was that punch by O'Neal better than the Kermit Washington punch on Rudy? It was damn close I think.
ESPN's defense of the players and condemnation of "fans" has gone a little overboard here I think. Did you see one of the ESPN announcers try to clarify that it was a fraction of the fans that went crazy and it's a shame many good fans there are going to suffer because of this label (paraphrasing), and didn't do anything wrong ... then Stephen A. Smith just goes off on all fans in attendance, saying "he didn't see all the fans step in to stop this" so he doesn't care what they think. Last time I went to a game I had my wife and two girls (at the time ages of 5 and 2) with me ..... I can't see in any way jumping in to something like that to pull some drunk thugs off some rich thugs. I can understand Artest's reaction -- I'd want to do the same thing -- but I don't know if you can justify it. It certainly wasn't the best course of action -- it made this so much worse. It's easy to say, I know, but he should have let security handle it. I feel the fans are the most dispicable of the bunch, no doubt... but Artest and Stephen Jackson throwing haymakers at fans? Damn. Oh, if that's the wrong guy is someone ever going to lose a ton of money. If someone told you the Rockets were about to acquire Jason Kidd and Richard Jefferson for Charlie Ward, how would you feel? That's how Detroit lawyers feel when they hear "multi-million dollar athlete punches wrong guy". Why did Larry Brown get so furious and throw down the microphone when he was going to talk to the fans to tell them to calm down? Was it not working? And where was security early on this one? Jim Gray - just stop. We just want to know what's going on ... we don't need your 'Can't We All Just Get Along?' attempt at award-winning journalism. And the reaction by the Detroit CEO was just embarrassing as well. The NBA has a serious issue on their hand: How to handle this. On one hand, they can not in any way send a message that it's OK for one of their players to go in to the stands and clock fans ... that is if they want to continue to attract sane fans to the game. On the other hand, Artest clearly was provoked. This is going to be a doozie.
yeah, so what was up with gray? i mean it sounded like he was going to cry but why would that be the case? it's not like he was scared at that point nor like he would've been so shaken that he would be crying. i know gray gets made fun of a lot but there's no way he was "shaken up" and about to cry was there? something had to just be messed up with his voice, but i can't figure out what except he was about to cry.
3) Who is MOST to blame for Friday night's brawl in Detroit? 51.7% Detroit fans 33.5% Ron Artest 8.5% Ben Wallace 5.6% Detroit security 0.7% Referees Total Votes: 39,596
This just set the NBA back a few years, they were just gaining some popularity with Lebronmania, Shaq in Miami, Yao, the Laker drama, and the myth of team basketball finally prevailing with the Pistons beating the Lakers. It's a sad night, I can't sleep right now, I could only imagine the explosion of negativity against the NBA that will surely follow. I wasn't around during the years where cocaine was all over the league but I hope it doesn't get that bad, and then there's the threat of a lock out, ugh!
In my opinion, I'd rank that: 1. Detroit Fans 2. Ben Wallace 3. Detroit Security 3. Ron Artest 4. Referees
Which brings up a interesting question, how much is that fan victim going to get? According to Jim Gray, the guy Artest went after and assaulted wasn't even the one that threw the empty cup at Artest- man, that guy can get millions off the Nba, artest, jackson, pacers etc. Seriously, that guys life was in danger.
Wow, just saw the footage of that old woman being dog piled by fans, palyers, and security. I hope she's ok.
dude clutch your kids are growing up fast, i remember when your first one was born back in the day. i remeber the good days of super mario elie, cc '96... and the mad max fight in '95 i think it was. i think this fight tops all other nba fights i've seen, but the mlb fight this year with the rangers was brutal too, when the picther for the rangers, fransico something, threw the chair in the stands.
