rbeckey,
You have some good thought in your post, and for the sake of discussion, I thought I'd address it. Legal action, bad players, bad fans, Jermaine punching out a fan, you covered a lot of ground. Good post, and now for a reply.
Originally posted by rbeckey
The question is why haven't these people been arrested?
1. I would attribute it to money. Artest and the fighting bunch have plenty of it. Those guys will settle in civil court with assualtees and will probably never be charged in criminal court. It's absolutely wrong, as I think inciting a public riot is a major problem as well as breaking the law. As far as I'm concerned, the stands are public domain, Artest and Jackson SHOULD be arrested for fighting there, fighting in a public place. Another thought is that the NBA will try to keep the law out of this as much as possible and handle it on their own. My only problem with that is that the NBA will use tape to prosecute the fans attacking Artest, but will want to punish their own players and keep the legal system out of dealing with bad players. I feel that is picking and choosing your fights, and after a player started a riot, the NBA has no right to pick ANY fight. Either drop the charges against the fans, or allow the legal system to prosecute YOUR players along side the battling fans.
A fan on the court deserves getting punched in the face?
2. Absolutely. I believe that the court is NOT public domain. That is NBA domain, and though many will disagree with me, and that's okay, but in my opinion, stepping on the court is almost like going into another country. The charachter who got clobbered by Jermaine O'Neal went to the court looking for a piece of someone, looking for a fight. Well he got it. Unless you are an NBA player, coach, staff, official, securiy or an invited guest, you have no business being on the court. Quite frankly, when you put yourself on the court looking for a fight, you have it coming and whatever punishment is dealt, well, that's on you. As the old saying goes, "If you don't want to fall off a cliff, don't go near the edge." If you don't want to get your face smashed by an NBA player in the middle of a riot, stay off the court. If nothing else, leave the game, and demand your money back on the way out, don't pick a fight with guys two or three times your size. Also, no one paid to have their can kicked by Ron Artest or Stephen Jackson. By the way, as a side topic, how about refunding the money of all the spectators not involved in throwing things at the Pacers or fighting in the stands? They DIDN'T get your money's worth...... but then again, that could be said about ANY NBA game.
If the players can't play on the court they need to go to the locker room, where no fans are allowed. Security will deal with out of hand fans.
3. They COULD play on the floor. But Artest goes into the stands for the guy that threw a beer and beat down the wrong person and riot ensues. I understand that Artest should have pointed the guy out and have security throw him out. Artest has a history of being hot head, *sarcasam* and the latter option unfortunately didn't occur to him. *end sarcasam* To be serious Artest should be kicked out of the league permanately, not just the rest of the season. After the incident, NBA officials called the game, and sent the teams to the locker room. They did make the right call, just that the riot kept it from being a swift decision. There wasn't enough time for the refs to act between the cup being thrown at Artest and when Artest beat down that poor fan with a cup in hand!
There is no excuse, reason or justification for any of the behavior that night.
4. As far as the players go, with the exception of Jermaine O'Neal, I agree whole heartedly. The fans are a little harder to figure on the motive. Some wanted a piece of Artest, while I think others wanted to break up the fight. Kudos to Rasheed Wallace, Rick Carlisile, Larry Brown, Chauncey Billups and Reggie Miller for attempting to break up some of the fights amongst players and/or fans.
What we saw is the influence of the urban "hip hop" culture at its finest.
5. Yeah, and Amen. The NBA markets to thugs, so they shouldn't be surprised when thug players go into stands and beat up fans. The NBA has created the monster it is today, and has no one to blame but itself for the sad state of affairs.
They need to stop selling alcohol at these events, and bar entry of inebriated fans. 75% of the problem is at the bottom of a beer. Or, more likely the sixth or seventh beer.
6. I agree with stopping the sale of alcohol at games. I don't think it is THE problem with fans though. Some people are just plain jerks, and they will be so whether they are fueled up on alcohol or not. As a little league basketball coach, I've seen my share of completely out-of-control *sober* parents. Alcohol just adds fuel to fire for those fans who are not in control of themself while intoxicated. Again, I'm sure there are people who can enjoy a beer or two at a game, and behave just fine. But because of the few who cannot, then yes, alcohol should be banned from stadiums.
Permanent suspension of repeat offender players would take care of 20% more. The other 5% need to be ejected from the arena immediately. Maybe then the NBA would be something a man could let his family watch.
7. Nah. The NBA needs to trash about 60% of their rosters and completely remake itself for it to be watchable. First, get rid of the thugs fighting fans and then thugs entirely. Then, get to work finding guys who actually PASS the ball to a teammate with a better shot. Then, find some guys who can actually shoot the rock. There are a few still around in the NBA, but it is a fast dying breed. The days of Magic, Bird, Jordan, Dr. J and many other graceful players have been replaced by the "AND 1" Super League. Win, lose, who cares? It's pretty sad to see a 7-foot center scream and yell when he dunks on a 5-11 point guard. Hellooooooooooo, you're SUPPOSED to be able to dunk on a 5-11 point guard. The NBA was once watchable, now it's just painful to watch, which is why I watch so much more college ball these days.
Anyways, enough of my rant, but you raise some good points and it was a pleasure to read your post.