I don't think any NBA player would compare activity somewhat consistent with the game (minor skirmishes with other players) to that from a fan.
These fans need to be punished hard and hopefully none of them are able to extract millions from lawsuits against the players or else something tells me we’re going to see a lot more of these incidents where fans do everything possible to provoke a fight in order to make a buck.
Yeah, It's hard for me to feel much sympathy for those guys. To me, it's kind of like bad kids taunting a dog at the end of a chain. They are warned time and again to leave the dog alone, but keep it up knowing the dog can never get to them. If one day the dog gets so mad it snaps its chain and bites them, do you really feel that sorry for them?
Don't fool yourself into thinking it unlikely. There are many that would. Idiots, yes....but exactly the kind of moron who would think it an opportunity in the first place. RE: the 'guy in the hat'. I told you all so.
Not even the guy that Artest mistakenly thought threw the cup? For all we know he was sitting there minding his own business when Ron came a charging.
artest didn't attack wallace b/c he was actually going to restrain himself for once in his life. people who think he was scared of wallace i think are crazy. if nothing else, the fact artest is crazy probably means he wouldn't have a problem throwing down. but in the interest of not getting suspended he held back. and something tells me if it had just been some regular moment in the game and a fan hit artest with a beer, he probably wouldn't have gone after him. he might've pointed and yelled at him and been restrained, but he probably could've held back. but take just having been shoved and then having wallace throw the towel to rev him up one last time and then just as things are settling down someone chunks a beer at him and i think it was finally too much. there's only so much ron artest's brain can handle before snapping. the shove + beer combo surpassed the threshhold. i'm sure there are many nba players who wouldn't have gone into the stands. no one initially thinks "well i might lose 7 million dollars," like Clutch mentioned, they just think "that MFer just hit me with a beer, i'm gonna kill him." now the more stable players might catch themselves as they were just about to enter the stands and start thinking about that $7M, but i'm pretty sure artest isn't the only one who would've followed through. past a certain level of maturity which i'm sure a lot of athletes are past, you're going into the stands after getting shoved and then getting a beer tossed on you and there's no one in b/t you and the stands to stop you. and vtkp99, while jackson did seem to be somewhat of a punk/thug (he was going wild in the player fight, and damn near beat artest into the stands), he only threw one punch and it was only at a guy who first threw another beer on artest. he hauled off and hit that guy then got restrained and he hit no one else. only one punch. unless he threw some afterward that haven't been shown on any of the clips i've seen. and man the first thrower better get something good. he just cost 3 guys $10M dollars b/c he's an a-hole and then decided to get some cheap shots in then decided not to show up to the police for questioning. maybe his punishment should be having to get up off the floor with jermaine o'neal charging him. if he lives, he won't throw anything at an athlete ever again.
No, he wasn't. The reason Artest went after him so specifically is because he was carrying on like he had done it. Watch the tape as Artest gets close, he looks like he's still actively taunting Artest. Evan
LOL! You don't actually believe that do you??? ROFL!!! He ain't even looking at Artest until he got close. He was jumping up and down with the cup in his hand cheering on the ensuing melee but doing absolutely nothing to contribute to it.
Pull down the link I gave in my thread. Pause it and go to 6:51. Artest is still 2-3 rows away, and Green (guy that threw cup, in blue warmup jacket), Ryan (the guy Artest attacked), a guy in a striped blue/green shirt, and a guy in a white button up are all looking dead at him. If you use Quicktime to pause and move frame by frame, you'll see Ryan not only bounce point and yell, but that he also moves to his right to better see Artest because the guy in front of him in white blocks his view. His eyes were locked onto him the entire time. Watch it. Evan
So your saying if you were at a basketball game, and a player came charging into the stands you wouldn't turn and see what is going on? Remember, you've done nothing wrong so you'd have no reason to run or think you're in jeopardy. Your eyes would be "locked" on him also.
I'm not faulting the guy. I'm refuting LakerMania's silly post saying that he never even saw Artest coming. I do believe he made himself a target by bouncing around acting like he had thrown the beer (despite having one still in his hand). I also don't believe that meant Artest should have hammered him into the seats. Evan
Exactly. Like I said the poor sap that got attacked didn't start to focus on him till Artest had made it halfway up the stands. Artest was was looking at him the whole time up there, he pretty much knew who he was going after and even a moron could tell this guy wasn't faking his shock at Artest running up at him. I also fail to see where he is specifically taunting Artest.
he's definitely bouncing and pointing. he's not just watching or anything. does that mean artest should randomly hit him? no. but it does make you look guiltier than other people if you're pointing at him and bouncing around like the beer toss was awesome. once he realizes artest is going after him, the bouncing and pointing stops.
He's bouncing around, yelling, and pointing right at Artest. Green (in Blue, real culprit)? He's just standing there. Guy in White? He's surprised but just looking. Guy in green/blue stripes? He's just looking. Ron saw Mike Ryan bouncing and acting like a fool and assumed he was the one. That was obviously wrong, but that's why he beelined for him specifically. That's all I'm saying. If I'm so ridiculously laugh out loud wrong, you tell me: why was he the guy that Artest nailed? Why'd Artest blow past 4 others? Evan
Stop altering your own. Unless, by "he ain't even looking at Artest" meant "his vision was blurred and couldn't see without his glasses until Artest was on top of him" Evan
