Artest not to Blame

Yes, I will say from the outset I am a fan of Ron Artest as a basketball player. As a human being he certainly does have his problems. He gets very emotional when he plays the game of basketball and his opponents know this and they take advantage of it by bating him into situations where he will commit a hard or flagrant foul. However, on this night Ron Artest was innocent.

Artest fouled “Big” Ben Wallace on his way to the basket in what was routinely slow plodding Pistons/Pacers game. I was watching live and saw nothing flagrant in Artest’s actions. Ben Wallace took a vastly different view of the situation (the tape clearly shows Artest did not add anything verbally toward Wallace either) and came right back at Artest and snuffed him. Then, Artest reeling back still did not say or do anything but Wallace pursued. Teammates stepped in and there was the normal pushing and shoving and everything seemed to have calmed down. At this point the refs and coach’s were discussion whatever various technical’s and ejections their might be. That is when the fans of Detroit acted in a manner more despicable than any set of fans I have ever witnessed. Now be aware that I filmed a brawl that puts this thing to shame at a minor league basketball game in Lancaster, PA, but that was mostly instigated by the players and it spilled into the crowd.

I was not totally cognizant if what had happened to provoke Artest and Stephen Jackson to charge into the crowd, but knew it wasn’t for someone just saying something. After watching replays and listening to Jim Gray’s eyewitness account it was clear that a fan came toward Artest and began throwing things on him as he lay calmly on the scorers table enjoy the light hearted after moments of an NBA shoving match. Artest then jumped from the table and charged madly into the stands and began jacking up the dude that threw stuff at him. This next point I will stick to till the day I die, GOOD FOR RON ARTEST!!!! I would have kicked the shit out of the guy too, especially if he was a scrawny white dude like he was. That fan should have the sack to charge right back at Artest if he has the sack to throw shit on him. Most of the other players went into the stands to separate Artest and the fan (sans Stephen Jackson who went in, to quote Keith DeBlasio, throwing haymakers). Both Pistons and Pacers wound up in the stands. While there more fans began to throw stuff on the players and they even began sucker punching Pacer players. I will say it again; here the fans are unequivocally 110% wrong.

Fans do not have any right to be a part of the action. It does not matter how much you pay to go the game, you are a spectator. The definition of spectator is; one who looks on or watches. Nowhere in that definition does it say one who throws drinks, popcorn, haymakers, jump’s over railings, sucker punches participants, etc. They acted in a manner which makes me wonder if the Pistons should be allowed to ever have a home game again. Once the incident had died down and the game was cancelled (again because of the fans it was cancelled) they began to throw as much shit as they could. Fans began jumping over the railing by the Pacers locker room and charging toward Jermaine O’neal and Austin Croshere, for no reason I might add, neither of those guys fouled anybody or punched anyone in the stands. They poured out entire dinks on ever member of the Pacers they could (Reggie Miller and Chuck Person had expensive suites on too). If I were the Pacers I would tell the league that under no circumstances will I bring my players back to Detroit for a game this season. You can make me forfeit or whatever you want, eliminate me from the playoffs, but my players will not be treated to that kind of excessive abuse from fans.

People can post comments back to this and say whatever they want, I do not care. The Pacers and most especially Mr. Artest were the last ones to get involved in this entire incident. You can call Artest a punk or a loser or psycho, but in this case he was provoked by people who have no right to interact with him. I would hope that if anyone threw shit at you and poured stuff on you that you would step up and protect your manhood by throwing the guy through a plate glass window. I certainly know I would.