I woke up this morning and opened the paper to see the big headline announcing that the Indiana Pacers and The Detroit Pistons resulted to fisticuffs and had a donnybrook in the last 45 seconds of a game in which the Pacers were winning by a rather respectable margin. I watched footage of the brawl this morning on television. It was, to say the least, scary. Since when has basketball turned into a WWE main event. Basketball players should stay on the basketball court and not go into the stands and beat up on a fan who, in the heat of the moment, threw a full cup of beer at his chest. Not only is that dangerous, but stupid, if for no other reason than there are way more fans in the stands then basketball players. Suddenly, the phrase Me Against the World comes to mind.
Here's what happened: Ron Artest (who has been a bit of a problem this year for the Pacers) put a hard foul on a Piston player who let his displeasure be known. Both benches cleared and broke them up. The Pistons guy continued to go after Artest who was actually stretched out on the scorers table having taken himself out of it, at least for awhile. Suddenly, from the stands a full cup of beer or soda was hurled and landed square in the middle of Artest's chest. Now here is where it got stupid. Artest jumped into the stands and went looking for the nimnod that threw the cup. He started swinging at anybody that moved. Fans started swinging back. Another player from the Pacers went into the stands to ostensibly help Artest or to get him out of the stands, but he ended up throwing puches, too. It didn't stop there. The whole place erupted. Chairs started to fly and more bottles and cups. It looked like a good old fashioned riot. The players had to be pulled off the floor for their own security. Speaking of which... where was the SECURITY to begin with? That's something for the NBA to deal with.
Oh, here's the best part. The next time the Pacers and Pistons meet? Dec 25th at The Consenco Fieldhouse. It should be interesting to see what happens there.
1 comment:
i was hopped up on cold med and saw it that night (missed the actual but caught it about 15-30 mins after)
the pacers were maniacs, a fan would bow up and they would just clock them.
i almost vomitted when the announcers were discussing it and talked about how what artest did was completely understandable and how they would have done the same thing. really blaming the fans for their part in it.
hey throwing a beer at somebody is wrong, but does that warrant a butt-whipping? totally. if you are 18 years old and drunk.
these guys are supposed to be professional atheletes and they showed their true colors friday night. i'd like to think that this was an off night for them, grandma died and dog hit by a car and found out that he has testicular cancer or something but i think the truth bears out in the way you see them off the court and how that matches with what happened.
they are demi-gods who think they are invincible.
embarassing.
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