The Aftermath of Artest

The weekend has ended but the talk has not about the brawl at the Palace on Friday night. I have received many comments, both good and bad, to my post almost immediately after the event where I was not blaming Ron Artest for the entire incident. Maybe some of what I have said and posted on the internet was (the dreaded) “taken out of context.” My choice of words may not have been the best, but I certainly will not back down from my position.

Now the NBA has done its expected part in handing down suspensions and fines for all the players involved in the incident. Again (and this may sound dumb for somebody who is sort of defending Artest) I have no problem with what Commissioner Stern has done. He needed to hand down a suspension of which the likes have never been seen. He needed to do so in order to maintain a level of professionalism that his league may be lacking. However, I think it was just as important for Artest to go into the crowd and let the fans know that their behavior to has crossed the line (and in my opinion has been over the line for years) and there are consequences to your actions.

Would those same people have the balls to step to Ron Artest had they both just been walking down the street? I doubt it. The fans think they can act anyway the want and feel they are secure from repercussions this serious. The guy who threw the drink, the guy who was then taunting Artest (yes the skinny guy in the black shirt was verbally taunting him as he came into the stands) or the idiots who came on the court at Artest probably thought the most that would happen was they would get removed from the game. Well it seems they got more than the bargained for. Fans act inappropriately all the time, both verbally and physically (take it from a guy who is in the stands), and most of the time security and building personnel do nothing about it. Just because you have purchased a ticket does not mean you get to yell anything you want at a person. Don’t try and duck behind the First Amendment either, there is such a thing as hate speech. In many instances if you were to yell at guy in a normal work environment what you yell when you are in the stands you would get pummeled and or sued for some sort of defamation of character or hate speech.

As for the legal recourse that these fans may take, that is up to them. I do not feel that many of them have a very strong case. I heard one legal analyst (Roger Cosack) say he believes that any type of felony charges will be hard to come by. However, their may be misdemeanor charges brought against Artest, Jackson, O’Neal and Pistons/NBA Security. I think many fans will sue saying they were not properly protected against a player coming into the stands. They should have thought about that before they did what they did.

I think the NBA and all sports need to take a closer look at what they allow fans to get away with in the stands in regards to their behavior and to alcohol. Things have been boiling toward an event like this for sometime, it just took one idiot to throw something at the right guy, and Artest was clearly the right guy.

I think every player should be allowed once a year to take a certain fan they dislike and beat the living tar out of him, why the hell not we live in a violent society, let’s embrace it. The only thing that remains to be seen is whether or not Fox can have Celebrity Boxing with Artest and the 2 Chicano’s who came after him on the court, and maybe Fred Jones and that big black Dude, Jermaine O’Neal and the chair throwing guy, come on folks I would watch this stiff on Pay-Per-View.