Yearlong bans.
I mean it. Yearlong bans. Suspensions of individuals for this entire 2004-05 NBA season. Nothing less is appropriate punishment for anyone actively involved in–by which I mean directly responsible for–Friday night’s rumble between the Indiana Pacers, Detroit Pistons and Palace of Auburn Hills fans, the ugliest scene at an American sporting event I have seen.
Ben Wallace, gone. Yearlong ban. Ron Artest, gone. Yearlong ban. Stephen Jackson, gone. Yearlong ban. Jamaal Tinsley, gone. Yearlong ban. Jermaine O’Neal, gone. Yearlong ban.
I don’t care if Indiana doesn’t have five players left to put a team on the court. The Pacers can go to the CBA or to the WNBA or to the YMCA to find some, for all I care. This stuff has to stop.
Don’t go whining to me how such-and-such Detroit fan did this and such-and-such Detroit fan did that. I don’t hold only the visiting Pacers accountable. I want Wallace of the Pistons bounced out on his ear as well. And maybe Rasheed Wallace right along with him. Out the door. Unwelcome at the arena until autumn 2005.
If NBA Commissioner David Stern does not step up right now, pound an iron fist on a desk and say he is going to put an end to this madness once and for all, he is not the strong executive I believe him to be. This is more than bad. This is historic. This is nearly unprecedented in U.S. sport culture.
Fights on the court, we have had those. (Kermit Washington vs. Rudy Tomjanovich.) Fights off the court, we have had those. (Latrell Sprewell vs. P.J. Carlesimo.) Civil disturbances in the streets after a game, we have had those. (Detroit had a doozy after an NBA Finals once, not to mention after a World Series.)
But this, this is different. This is chaos. This is mass hysteria. This is inciting a riot. This is hand-to-hand combat, athletes vs. fans, beyond practically anything you could see even at a European soccer melee. And if these NBA guys want to do the crime, they need to do the time.
Arrests? Lawsuits? I don’t care about that. That is for law-enforcement authorities and legal counsels to address. I am talking about Wallace, Artest, Jackson, Tinsley, O’Neal and others paying for this in the only ways that hurt–by putting them out of work, by costing their NBA teams precious victories and by making these Pistons fans rue the day they did what they did.
Stern, aptly named, threw the book at Sprewell after the player tried to choke a coach. The suspension was for more than 60 games. A no-tolerance edict came with it, emphatically stating that one more outrage like this and Sprewell’s career in this league would be history, past tense, no appeal.
The guy has been on his best behavior ever since.
I thought I was hallucinating when this ruckus evolved into a bloody uproar. A chair was thrown. A referee was struck in the face by a full plastic bottle. A woman lay prostrate on the floor. A fan was punched in the face by a player. A player was hit with a cup of beer. More drinks flew. Food. Clothing.
TV announcer Bill Walton called it the worst thing he had witnessed in 30 years of basketball. Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said it made him fear for his life. Pistons coach Larry Brown tried to joke that perhaps in the old ABA he had seen something similar, but he visibly was distraught and unsure what to say, whom to blame.
I will tell you whom. First you have Wallace. He could have responded to a hard foul by Artest with a curse. Or the point of a finger. Men do it all the time. But no, not Wallace–he had to strike Artest, hard, driving him backward. It infuriated Artest’s teammates and aroused the crowd.
Then there is Artest. High-octane Artest. I cannot express more eloquently that this is a guy with a screw loose.
He milked the moment for all it was worth. Then he erupted. A fan threw something at him, whereupon security guards could have intervened and taken care of it for him. But no, not Artest–he had to leap into the mob and start swinging.
Artest couldn’t even be sure he had the guilty culprit. He just singled out a fan and laid into him. That did it. Total, unbridled turmoil ensued. For every teammate who tried to help by breaking it up, there was another teammate who tried to help by knocking loose some other fan’s teeth.
What is this? Uncontrollable anger? Steroid rage? I can’t tell ‘roid rage from road rage anymore.
What makes athletes behave the way they do, charging viciously at a baseball umpire over a ball-and-strike call as if the ump just pulled a knife on him? Flinging a chair into the stands, as a Texas Ranger did. Warring hand-to-hand with fans, as a few Los Angeles Dodgers once did at Wrigley Field.
It is important to make the Pistons and Pacers suffer for this. Innocent bystanders be damned. Sometimes you have to keep the whole class after school.
I am sorry if Detroit and Indiana will have to lose a lot more games now because their top players are being expelled, but I repeat:
This . . . stuff . . . must . . . stop.
Background on battleground
How the brawl unfolded:
– Indiana’s Ron Artest fouled Detroit’s Ben Wallace with 45.9 seconds left and the Pacers leading 97-82.
– Wallace wheeled around and delivered a two-handed shove to Artest’s chin. That led to pushing among several players near midcourt.
– Artest lay on the scorer’s table with his hands behind his head. Wallace tried to get at him but was held back.
– As players shouted at each other, Wallace threw a wristband toward Artest, who stood up briefly before lying back down.
– A fan hit Artest in the face with a cup filled with ice and a beverage.
– Artest stormed into the stands and attacked a fan he thought hurled the cup.
– Indiana’s Stephen Jackson joined his teammate in the seats and started throwing punches. David Harrison, Eddie Gill and Fred Jones of the Pacers, Detroit’s Rasheed Wallace and former Piston Rick Mahorn tried to break up the fight.
– Near Indiana’s bench, Artest punched a fan wearing a Pistons jersey who walked toward him. After another fan tried to tackle Artest, Jermaine O’Neal ran toward him and landed a hard right hand on his face.
– Pacers players and coaches left the floor and were showered with beer, popcorn and other debris, including a chair.
Associated Press.
