BasketBrawl

I'm sure everyone by now has seen the events that took place at the Palace of Auburn Hills on Friday night between the Detroit Pistons and the Indiana Pacers. As of this writing, four players, Piston Ben Wallace and the Pacers' Ron Artest, Stephen Jackson, and Jermaine O'Neal have all been suspended indefinitely. Good. There was no excuse for what happened. A hard foul on Wallace by Artest was uncalled for, as was Wallace's hard shove afterwards. However, that's not what I want to focus on. Players fight each other, it's emotional, and in this case, was pretty much resolved before the "fans", and I use the term loosely, decided that they should get involved. The utter stupidity of these people can not be understated. Cheering/booing is expected, and frankly, the basis of home-court advantage. However, nothing, and I mean NOTHING, excuses throwing objects at players or onto the playing surface. Well, throwing hats for a hat trick, or octopi for Red Wing playoffs is different, as those examples are a CELEBRATION of events. Too bad hockey won't be played this season.

As for these "fans", what were they thinking in their drunken hazes? Obviously nothing. It's disgusting, pure and simple. Even after the idiotic Artest running into the crowd, inciting the melee that followed, how absolutely brain-cell deficient do you have to be to go ONTO the court and challenge MEN who are finely tuned athletes? The morons who got clocked by Artest and O'Neal deserved the bruises and punches they received. Hopefully, all the fans who were involved in this can be identified and receive the following: Jail time/fines for disorderly conduct and banishment from all NBA arenas forever. What will happen? Cynically, nothing from the police, no bans from the NBA for these fans, and lawsuits against the involved players where the pond scum of the human gene pool will PROFIT from this. Am I excusing the players for their roles in this? Of course not. Unlike the apologists of ESPN who think and have stated that the players were justified because beer was thrown on them (more inane logic), I think they deserve everything they get. I'm just ticked off that this will give real Detroit sports fans another black eye nationally. An absolute disgrace and embarrassment.