I know, I know--you're probably as sick as I am of hearing about the whole Artest thing. But I talked about it today on the radio and I was surprised to hear how many people don't think the fans are the problem here. Look, as Jer pointed out, Artest has gotten what he deserves. I think the suspension was a bit harsh, because as Chad Ford pointed out today on ESPN.com, the only punch Artest threw was when he was back on the floor and one of those doofuses charged at him. I really think Stephen Jackson should have gotten more because his actions were totally unprovoked. IF you're going into the stands to defend your teammate, to me that means you're pulling him out of there as fast as you can and trying to pull people off of him. Instead Jackson was throwing punches at anybody and everybody while Artest was getting gang tackled by countless drunk, beligerent idiots. And Jermaine O'Neal might get less because he's had a spotless record and was defending a teammate ON THE COURT (which to me is a huge difference), but that punch he threw looked so devastating. But Artest went into the crowd and that's something you just can't do, no matter what a fan says, does, or throws. And shouldn't Ben Wallace get more blame or a stiffer suspension because he started all of this?
Now, the fans. Detroit's crowd Friday night made the Scottish Soccer Hooligans look like school girls. Again, Artest should take blame for going after people in the crowd but there is no excuse-NONE- for the idiot that threw that beer. Or any of the other people that started attacking players or came onto the court or threw MORE beer. Fans have the mentality now that paying for that ticket entitles them to say and do whatever the hell they want. And apparently, the NBA agrees. What did you hear from the Detroit Pistons CEO? Blamed ALL of it on Artest. Didn't say how disappointed he was in his fans for how they acted or any of that. Nope, let's blame Ron-Ron. And that's what everybody else is doing. Artest is a guy with a checkered past so he's an easy scapegoat for all of this. Fans and media can persecute Artest for all of this (even though he should be sharing the players' side of the blame with the rest of the guys who got suspended), and everybody will overlook who out of control the fans were.
If you've watched TV or ESPN at all in the last few games, I'm sure you've seen this brawl from about 3 million different angles. I would love to see the Detroit Police go after each and every person that threw something or came on the court. They should have plenty of footage to do it. How? NOt as hard as you would think. Those lower bowl seats weren't purchased by someone just walking up to the gate. They were either season ticket holders or people that had to buy them well in advance, meaning that the Pistons should have everybody's credit card and addresses. Start taking blocks of seats, track the people down, and see if they match the descriptions on tape.
Also, I saw a couple of interesting suggestions about suspending beer sales in Detroit as penalty, or not letting fans into the rematch in March. You can be sure neither will happen, because owners love the income too much. They won't even discuss whether beer sales should be tempered or moderated because people will pay outrageous prices for a beer at a sporting event--and obviously Detroit fans are buying a LOT of them. And they're not going to turn the fans of Detroit away because ticket sales, and especially those in the lower bowl where the melee happened, are their biggest revenue maker. Owners will run the risk of fans doing this again, and inevitably it will happen, if it means more money in their pockets now.
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