Re: 2004-05 NBA thread The Pacers are the big losers anyway - great start to the season is going to see at least three of their better players out for a long time and certainly facing lawsuits. Just throwing a question out there - but doesn't huge punishments of the Pacers give incentive to opposing fans to try harder to provoke them? Won't the NBA be bearing this in mind?
Re: 2004-05 NBA thread It's a good thing I wasn't in Miami or I'd have started a fight with the ********ing refs! They gave away a Jazz road win to the stars the NBA wants to hype! It can be tough to be a die-hard fan in an unsexy market.
Re: 2004-05 NBA thread This was just a good case of old time hockey. It was remeniscent of when Mike Milbury tried to take on Madison Square Garden in 1979 or when Jason Varitek gave Ass-Rod the face wash back in July. See there, Boston and Detroit: two great hockey towns. This was beautiful. Decades from now, people will look back on this and laugh. NBA, it's fantastic.
Re: 2004-05 NBA thread These announcers have gone off the deep end. "Players are at a disadvantage and are vulnerable trying to climb chairs."
Re: 2004-05 NBA thread Crazy they attacked the fan. Very bad sportsmanship by the players. I see about 10+ games suspension for Artest, Wallace about 7, Jackson about 7, O'Neal about 3 and few others....about 1. But it wasn't just the player. The Detroit fans also were disgraceful...Throwing every piece of crap at the players... Anyway heres the video of the incident for anyone who didn't see it. http://media.holla-front.com/nbafight.wmv
Re: 2004-05 NBA thread I've got to think O'Neal gets more than 3 games. He's the one guy who absolutely clocked one fan. It was the most solid punch of the night. The fan was on the court, but O'Neal came flying into the scene and decked the guy who was no threat to him or anyone else.
Re: 2004-05 NBA thread Everyone's got to quit blowing this out of proportion. Have you heard Jim Gray? He sounded like Herb Morrison reporting the Hindenburg disaster. Eddie Shore, old time hockey.
Re: 2004-05 NBA thread My mistake, JO will probably get like 10 games.. That last running punch on the guy puts it over the top.
Re: 2004-05 NBA thread Not to make excuses for him, but Ben Wallace's brother just died from brain cancer last week. He probably had a lot of pent up sadness, anger, frustration that just exploded out of him on the Artest foul. Ben is really a stand up, good guy, and a true gentleman.
Re: 2004-05 NBA thread Sorry, I agree with some of the things you say, but fvck that, man. Ron Artest is a thug. He always was a ticking time bomb and it was only a matter of time before he erupted. He was settling down until the little preppy piece of $hit fan thought it would be funny to throw something at him that could've possibly hurt him (like hell he knew what it could've been...). Show some restraint? He didn't do $hit to that guy... and he gets attacked by him... show some restraint... It'd be different if it was verbal abuse, taunting, etc. (even though I've always thought that it was getting out of hand). As a human being (or Ron Artest in this instance), there is only so much restraint you can have until you defend yourself because God knows that security failed in doing so. ... I still see the stupid, obnoxious smug face on that little $hithead and his friends that thought it was so funny to do what he did... and that even pisses me off because it's more than just a 'thug thang'. Make no bones about it, I think Ron Artest is a psycho that should've probably been locked up long ago. But this wasn't all his fault. Yeah, that would suck. Thank God that didn't happen. But you cannot demonize one individual in this. Ron Artest was attacked and he went after his attacker and fans jumped in. I don't condone what Artest did by a long shot. But like hell I'll say that any man should just stand there and let someone abuse him and attack him regardless of the circumstances. What happens if it's that little girl's father that throws a beer bottle at him and says: "take that you stupid n!gger. Nothing but a slave." Maybe it's time to put up the glass shields like they have in hockey. A lot of good being "6'9 and 275 lbs" does you when you're laying on your back and relatively defenseless and the guy's only a few feet from you... A lot of good being an official was for Tommy Nunez who was belted in the head by a beer bottle by some nutjob in the crowd. The players lost it and they shouldn't have. They will be punished. But the fans... cowards. Amazing how tough they felt in the company of thousands.
Re: 2004-05 NBA thread And there's definitely no denying that Artest and Jackson are all kinds of crazy. Clint Mathis has nothing on these guys.
Re: 2004-05 NBA thread This whole incident really pissed me off. It was disappointing to see fans and players get into it but I can't help but say that this was due to happen. That announcer had a right to be seriously disturbed by what happened.
Re: 2004-05 NBA thread Holy hell!!! I couldn't believe what I was watching!! Seeing all the Pacers getting drenched with sodas and beer reminded me of when I got drenched with sodas and beer at the US-Mexico Gold Cup 1998 game in LA. And they say this stuff happens only in soccer. There are a lot of shouldn't haves to go around. Artest shouldn't have gone into the stands, the fans shouldn't have thrown stuff on the Pacers players, the fans shouldn't have fought the Pacers player, JO shouldn't have hit the fans, etc. etc. etc. But my question is, where the hell was the security?!?
Re: 2004-05 NBA thread There's a LOT of blame to go around here. Wallace, Artest, Jackson, the fans who threw crap, the arena for its lack of security, etc. And everyone's trying to spin things. Jim Gray interviewed the Pistons CEO, who said that Artest's laying on the scorer's table sort of precipitated everything, since it gave the fans a clear shot, which is absurd.
Re: 2004-05 NBA thread That's a good point. The fans who threw stuff did so under the presumption, that as paying customers in the stands, they would be safe from any sort of retribution. If any good comes out of this, maybe they'll think twice.
Re: 2004-05 NBA thread Yeah, I saw that. I couldn't believe he was actually blaming Artest for the whole thing just because he was lying at the scorer's table. Whatever. This is proof that a) sporting events need to stop the beer sales at halftime; b) there's not nearly enough security at games, especially at NBA games where the fans are right on top of the court.
Re: 2004-05 NBA thread Did anybody catch what Larry Brown was saying when he slammed down the microphone?
Re: 2004-05 NBA thread I think he was trying to get the fans to settle down and such. But I think the game had been called by that point.
Re: 2004-05 NBA thread Not that it would have mattered much had he actually addressed the crowd. He wouldn't have been able to stop anything.
Re: 2004-05 NBA thread You're right on both counts. There are already some folks speculating that Artest, O'Neal, Jackson, etc. could face lawsuits. I think the Pistons and the arena (does the team own the Palace?) would be more liable, due to lack of security. But of course, anyone who threw a thing at a player shouldn't get a dime.
Re: 2004-05 NBA thread And neither should that guy who walked on the court and got his butt beat by Artest and O'Neal. I didn't realize that was Chuck Person in the beige suit walking out of the arena with Artest and Reggie Miller. Chuck Person was a hothead in his own right, but he apparently mellowed out.
Re: 2004-05 NBA thread I know what you mean. I think it's the blame game getting started and accountability. I don't know... it was just really really ugly. And the security... it was something - at one moment Artest was away with someone holding him back, and he was standing still - there were a few fans in front of him trying to get him to fight and there was the security cop pointing the pepper spray at Artest. I saw more than just player x and fan y and that's what made it a bit scarier and I imagine in the thick of it was what shook up the reporter... Someone mentioned, if this will encourage fans to do it even more to the players to get them egged on, etc. Maybe they will - but again maybe it will be like hockey or other sports, like football where there is a divider between the player's bench and the fans. And you have to think about it - do you really want that to be a part of the sports culture?
Re: 2004-05 NBA thread Hey, I can see that! Actually... they've been showing it on ESPN and lookin' at the foul on Ben Wallace... I like Ben Wallace but that wasn't the hardest foul I've ever seen - not by a LONG shot. It wasn't even flagrant. He overreacted big time.