There is ABSOLUTELY No reason for Players to go into the stands to fight Fans, NONE. That's one of the first things you learn in school sports, and it's very easy to follow. Artest is a crazy guy, I mean a damn paper cup , a paper cup!! makes him go crazy and after fans in the crowd, you know he's not all there. But the other players like oneal and jackson, no excuse at all to go into the crowd and follow that moron Artest, none! And artest and oneal punching that kid with that sucker shot, another thing you shoudl never do. AND ESPN, what a bunch of tools, are they afraid they will lose their NBA license? ESPN , John Suanders, Legler, and Anthony make me want to puke. I am sure they are getting it from the top down to BLAME IT ALL on the fans. Watching how they describe this on the FANS is like they are making the fans out to be militants in fallujah. AGAIN, as a PROFESSIONAL Player, you should NEVER go into the crowds and hit fans. I think this ITS ALL THE FANS FAULT spin from ESPN and the NBA won't fly with the masses.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting rodney7:</div><div class="quote_post">There is ABSOLUTELY No reason for Players to go into the stands to fight Fans, NONE. That's one of the first things you learn in school sports, and it's very easy to follow. Artest is a crazy guy, I mean a damn paper cup , a paper cup!! makes him go crazy and after fans in the crowd, you know he's not all there. But the other players like oneal and jackson, no excuse at all to go into the crowd and follow that moron Artest, none! And artest and oneal punching that kid with that sucker shot, another thing you shoudl never do. AND ESPN, what a bunch of tools, are they afraid they will lose their NBA license? ESPN , John Suanders, Legler, and Anthony make me want to puke. I am sure they are getting it from the top down to BLAME IT ALL on the fans. Watching how they describe this on the FANS is like they are making the fans out to be militants in fallujah. AGAIN, as a PROFESSIONAL Player, you should NEVER go into the crowds and hit fans. I think this ITS ALL THE FANS FAULT spin from ESPN and the NBA won't fly with the masses.</div> I cant believe you. I personally would have done the same thing. I would never let somebody disrespect me in that way, no matter how much it cost me. And the fans were throwing sucker punches at all the pacers. Like the fat guy who punched fred jones. I'm just glad all the pacers stood up for each other even after JO was mad at artest earlier in the season. NObody is gonna like this but I am proud of them.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting OGmAXiFY:</div><div class="quote_post">Wrong, it wasnt a flagrant...just a usual foul..Ben just overreacted...</div> no your wrong Ron is the one that overreacted If i was ben i would have knot Ron into the first row.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting rodney7:</div><div class="quote_post">There is ABSOLUTELY No reason for Players to go into the stands to fight Fans, NONE. That's one of the first things you learn in school sports, and it's very easy to follow. Artest is a crazy guy, I mean a damn paper cup , a paper cup!! makes him go crazy and after fans in the crowd, you know he's not all there. But the other players like oneal and jackson, no excuse at all to go into the crowd and follow that moron Artest, none! And artest and oneal punching that kid with that sucker shot, another thing you shoudl never do. AND ESPN, what a bunch of tools, are they afraid they will lose their NBA license? ESPN , John Suanders, Legler, and Anthony make me want to puke. I am sure they are getting it from the top down to BLAME IT ALL on the fans. Watching how they describe this on the FANS is like they are making the fans out to be militants in fallujah. AGAIN, as a PROFESSIONAL Player, you should NEVER go into the crowds and hit fans. I think this ITS ALL THE FANS FAULT spin from ESPN and the NBA won't fly with the masses.</div> Very well put
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting explosive:</div><div class="quote_post">This is going to be a bad thing for the NBA's reputation, I don't care how you look at it, casual fans are going to look at this and just shake their heads. There is no excuse for what happened and I am hoping that Stern can find a good way to make sure that something like this has little to no chance of happening again. That being said, I think that Ben Wallace is the guy that you need to make an example out of in all of this. He started the altercation by overreacting to something that is part of the game. The foul wasn't flagrant, it wasn't malicious, and I suggest that if Big Ben has a problem with inadvertant fouls in the course of a basketball game that he take up a non-contact sport like baseball. Honestly, no reason for him to push Artest the way that he did, it just shows that he's a very sore loser. As for the Pacers, the major guys that you have to look at are Steven Jackson and Ron Artest. When I first saw all of this going down, I couldn't help but hope that it would end without anything major, but when Artest jumped the scoring table, I knew that I wouldn't get what I was wishing for. The guy has been taking enough crap lately from the media for stupid bullshit all week and then this happens. Granted, he could have handled things a bit better, but I am willing to wager that most people here with short fuses like Artest has would do the same thing in the same situation. Then you have Steven Jackson who is really not involved in the fight and is trying to stick up for his teammate, but to a point where he is getting involved in something that he might be best staying out of almost completely. I commend him for sticking up for Artest, but I think that he crossed the line a little bit toward the end there when he jumped in the stands as well. Nevertheless, I expect to see him fined and suspended pretty heavily. Then you got the fans trying to egg all of the Pacers on into fistfights by throwing debris and pouring drinks on them. So when Jermaine O'Neal punched that one guy by the tunnel, I didn't feel sorry for the fan since he asked for it. Detroit fans labelled themselves tonight as cowards and cheap shot artists. They should be embarassed and I hope that the people that contributed to it where arrested...yes, they deserve to be arrested for that. Finally, I think that Artest and the Pacers handled the situation relatively well for the positions that they were put in. I can't imagine any team in the NBA not handling the situation similarly, but I could be wrong. Granted, I would have liked to see them not jump in the stands and assault fans, but the ones that got assaulted did instigate a fight. I just hope that Artest and Jackson don't get made out to be the badguys in all of this when really, you can place most - if not all - of the blame on Ben Wallace and the Piston fans.</div> I couldn't put it better, the Pistons are sweet winners but they are sure sore losers And this is what Mr. Marty Burns had to say: <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">It needs to have a talk with Pistons ownership. Late Friday night Pistons CEO Tom Wilson went on TV and basically blamed Artest for causing the riot by lying on the scorer's table close to the crowd instead of standing on the floor. What kind of corporate PR nonsense is that? Referee Tommy Nunez Jr. was standing on the floor -- and he got hit in the head with a bottle. The Pistons organization needs to admit their fans caused it by acting like hooligans. It wasn't just a few loudmouths behind the bench either. As Artest was escorted off the floor far away from the scene behind the bench, he was still getting nailed with a barrage of beer cups and garbage. Other fans were literally running to the railings to dump beer and popcorn on the Pacers players as they were exiting the aisles. It's all there on the videotape if the Detroit brass has the guts to look at it.</div> http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2004/writ...eact/index.html Great point, explosive. :thumbsup:
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting slugzilla:</div><div class="quote_post">I was surprised at the fans. Especially the guy should who threw the beer at Artest, he should never be allowed to come back.</div> I was suprised they allowed fans to taunt players on the Court. what was the fan doing there anyway on the court? Its his fault he got the beat down.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting AA13:</div><div class="quote_post">Yea and you call me moronic when Artest did the right thing and took up for himself When first of all Wallace starts it for no reason then a fan throws a beer on him! But yea theres nothing wrong with what Wallace or the Pistons fans did. </div> yup...i did. for evidence of why you deserved it, just read my sig lol you just actually proved it again by saying that artest did the right thing. thanks for that lol :thumbsup:
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting friedrice092289:</div><div class="quote_post">wat happed to kid rock? i saw him at the game, did he leave before the fight?</div> From the way it looks, that rodney guy is Kid Rock. What a whiney crybaby. It's not a paper cup, it was plastic and filled with liquid. So you're saying i can pelt you with a cup full of liquid as hard as i want and you'll just sit there and take it like a b*tch? If so, let me know where you're playing, i've had a hard week. ESPN anylists are not tools, that is unhuman what those fans did, And a taste of his knuckles. It's obvious that you're a Pistons fan, a bandwagoner at that, and if it were in Conseco fieldhouse and Pacers fan threw a bottle a Medium ben (the only Big Ben is Ben Roethlisberger) or Rip Van Winkle, and one (or both of them) went in the stands and started duking it out with players, you'd be boo-hooing "OOOOh, Pacers fans are EVIL . /." Shut up and look at it from the Omnicient point of view, The Piston Fans, most of the Pacers, The Security, and some of the pistons (In that exact order) are to blame. Even though Ben over reacted, if that was it, then none of this would've happened. Now quote Nirvana and say "You know you're right". Questions? Comments? (I would make it my sig if SOMEONE FOUND THE GIF OF A.I. CROSSING OVER JORDAN!!!!)
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting rodney7:</div><div class="quote_post">There is ABSOLUTELY No reason for Players to go into the stands to fight Fans, NONE. That's one of the first things you learn in school sports, and it's very easy to follow. Artest is a crazy guy, I mean a damn paper cup , a paper cup!! makes him go crazy and after fans in the crowd, you know he's not all there. But the other players like oneal and jackson, no excuse at all to go into the crowd and follow that moron Artest, none! And artest and oneal punching that kid with that sucker shot, another thing you shoudl never do. AND ESPN, what a bunch of tools, are they afraid they will lose their NBA license? ESPN , John Suanders, Legler, and Anthony make me want to puke. I am sure they are getting it from the top down to BLAME IT ALL on the fans. Watching how they describe this on the FANS is like they are making the fans out to be militants in fallujah. AGAIN, as a PROFESSIONAL Player, you should NEVER go into the crowds and hit fans. I think this ITS ALL THE FANS FAULT spin from ESPN and the NBA won't fly with the masses.</div>You call Artest crazy. The fans were acting just as much like animals as Artest did. Did artest, throw a bottle to the officals? A chair? No he didnt. Dont start pointing fingers. The fight is bigger than any single person. Artest is the scapegoat because of past history. Im not a fan on Indiana, but I've watched the replays. To say Artest was the only one acting out of control is ridiculous. The fans, on their home floor should have shown some respect. Instead, they acted like they were in a Zoo all locked up.
I really have to laugh at the amount of people saying "I would have done the same thing as Ron" and "Put yourself in Ron's shoes". The fans were disgusting, true. But as a PROFESSIONAL athlete, you DO NOT go after fans like that. I don't care what they do, you do not under ANY circumstances do what they did today. I said Jackson and Artest should be suspended for the season, and I stand by it. One of the most ourageously dumb things I've ever seen, and I don't care what the fan did. These guys aren't 'normal people', they are role models who earn millions of dollars to play basketball. They have absolutely no place going after fans in the stand. I'm not sticking up for the fans, I think they should find the worst offenders and ban them from attending NBA games for life, but if you think you can excuse the actions of Indiana players, you are crazy.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Fletcher:</div><div class="quote_post">Some of these arguments just don't make sense to me. It's almost like some of you guys are out to get Artest.</div> i agree with the first part of this...you're certainly right that some of these arguments dont make sense... the 2nd part is where your wrong...artest was fully in the wrong in this one imo. its up to "PROFESSIONAL" athletes to be the bigger person and let it go. there is no excuse for him attacking a fan...regardless of what happend you could say that artest provoked the whole thing by laying down like he was. he was being way too cocky and just laying there the way he was, was a taunt in itself. did anyone see jermaine absolutely lay that one dude out on the floor? the 2nd fight that artest got into on the court after he ran back from the stands...jermaine came out of nowhere and abslolutely SMOKED that dude. great punch lol <div class="quote_poster">Quoting Supersonic:</div><div class="quote_post">I really have to laugh at the amount of people saying "I would have done the same thing as Ron" and "Put yourself in Ron's shoes". but if you think you can excuse the actions of Indiana players, you are crazy.</div> agreed and agreed. i cant believe that people are supporting artest in all of this. and if you look at the footage from that one angle, you can clearly see the dude in the white hat was the one who threw the bottle...artest went after the wrong guy...that makes it even WORSE lol! artest has proved over and over again that he's a classless arrogant clown, and tonight was a glimmering example of how he hasnt changed. i hope stu jackson comes down MEGA hard on him for this, so that a message is sent that these kinds of actions will NOT be tolerated by anyone.
both of you guys must be young and have never gotten into a fight. Trust me, back in my school days, i've gotten expelled for less than that.
Yep, i saw that one huge as punch... leveled the fat bastard out... thought he was tough... but the one i want to see if any1 has the clip is the one where Fred Jones gets beat up by the Ruben Studdard lookalike...
Ron just got alittle beer in his face and went after some fan that didn't even do anything why didn't he do that to Ben Ron is just a big wu_s
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Supersonic:</div><div class="quote_post">I really have to laugh at the amount of people saying "I would have done the same thing as Ron" and "Put yourself in Ron's shoes". The fans were disgusting, true. But as a PROFESSIONAL athlete, you DO NOT go after fans like that. I don't care what they do, you do not under ANY circumstances do what they did today. I said Jackson and Artest should be suspended for the season, and I stand by it. One of the most ourageously dumb things I've ever seen, and I don't care what the fan did. These guys aren't 'normal people', they are role models who earn millions of dollars to play basketball. They have absolutely no place going after fans in the stand.</div> If you do that, you're essentially rewarding the Detroit fans. Artest and Jackson were wrong and what they did was unjustified. But when it was Ben Wallace who started the confrontation to begin with, and then the fans further instigated it, it doesn't seem very fair to me to penalize Indiana like that. Particularly when you consider that most players probably would have done the same thing in the heat of the moment. I'd be extremely dissapointed if the NBA suspended them for the season.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting def#53:</div><div class="quote_post">both of you guys must be young and have never gotten into a fight. Trust me, back in my school days, i've gotten expelled for less than that.</div> In your school days, were you a professional under media scrutiny? Were you in a position where you required to show responsibility and a bit of restraint? Completely different situations.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Oneinpower:</div><div class="quote_post">Ron just got alittle beer in his face and went after some fan that didn't even do anything why didn't he do that to Ben Ron is just a big wu_s</div> Ben is a fellow NBA player, and getting shoved during the game is a fairly common thing. He was trying to calm himself down. If you see the video, Ben threw a towel in his face while he was lying down, and he got up like he was going to approach Ben but an assistant coach told him to sit back down. So, his emotions at that point were running very high. And then ... BAM! .... he gets a beer thrown in his face. Should we really be surprised that he'd erupt at that point? Shaq later said he'd have done the same thing. I bet a majority of NBA players would probably have reacted the same way. That doesn't excuse it, but it makes it understandable and predictable and you gotta take that into account when levying punishments.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Supersonic:</div><div class="quote_post">I really have to laugh at the amount of people saying "I would have done the same thing as Ron" and "Put yourself in Ron's shoes". The fans were disgusting, true. But as a PROFESSIONAL athlete, you DO NOT go after fans like that. I don't care what they do, you do not under ANY circumstances do what they did today. I said Jackson and Artest should be suspended for the season, and I stand by it. One of the most ourageously dumb things I've ever seen, and I don't care what the fan did. These guys aren't 'normal people', they are role models who earn millions of dollars to play basketball. They have absolutely no place going after fans in the stand. I'm not sticking up for the fans, I think they should find the worst offenders and ban them from attending NBA games for life, but if you think you can excuse the actions of Indiana players, you are crazy.</div> I never said it wasn't Indianas fault either. But to make Artest a scapegoat for what happened is stupid
