I'm sure you guys have heard about this but what do you think? I personally think Artest and the rest of the fans had every right to go into the stand and well "regulate". If you look at the video, Artest is on the scorer's table when he gets a beer thrown at him. I don't know about you guys, but after getting pushed in the face by an opponent and then a beef thrown on me I'd sure as hell be going after someone. The rest of the guys who went into the stand were just trying to protect their fellow teammates and everyone got caught up in the heat of it all.
ben wallace OVERreacted. it wasn't that hard of a foul. What i don't get is that he went after a kid who doesn't even look like he's 21!!! it was the officials fault too-artest and wallace shouldn't even bee on the floor-it was like a 15 point game. honestly, there needs to be some sort of barrier to protect the players. when you see kids crying because of the fans fighting, somethings wrong.
i was impressed by Larry Brown tho-he went over to the scorer's table and tried to get on the mic to try to calm the fans down. still, there's no reason why fans should be on the court. artest shouldn't have gone into the stands, but everything after that was his teammates trying to protect him.
there's so much more i can say about this ugly incident, but i don't want to rant. it's just unexcuseable behavior by the fans. there was this one picture of this one guy and his little girl just staring in disbelief at what was going on, then ESPNews went to a shot of this 5-7 year old crying with his older brother (guessing 10) consoling him. UUGH...inexcusable...
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I have been to many Pistons game at the palace(although I'm going to school in Chicago now) and Pistons fans have always been great. Until yesterday night....OMG...I could not beleive me eyes. IMO Artest is a head case(wanting to quit and pursue a music carrer earlier this week, talking lots of trash in the past) but he should not have gone after the fan who threw something at him. I am not defending the fan who started it but Artest is a pro and should have known better to go into the crowd....that is just dumb.
However, as a Pistons fan, I do feel that Big Ben overrecated but you don't know what kind of trash Artest could have been saying to Ben before the incident ocurred.
As you said about Artest, Big Ben is a PRO as well, and he should be able to handle his emotions a little better. The foul was not that hard, and for a guy that can bench close to 500lbs and curl 200, I'm extremely supprised to see the way he reacted. Ben normally is an extremely great player. Artest has had problems in the past, and well he was just trying to cool down, when a lunatic fan THREW A BEER AT HIM. I'm not saying what he did was right, but if you've just gotten into a fight and walked away and then someone throws a beer at you I'm pretty sure that if you are in Artest's shoes you react the same way. And I know it's hard to put yourself in that position, but I mean you're 20something and you've pretty much got a bullzeye on your back...
Both Ben and Artest should get the same fines/penalties seeing as Ben pretty much was the cause of the severity of the altercation. This is something that shouldn't have happened on all parts, but once you get something thrown at you, that is pretty much assault and you have the RIGHT to defend yourself. I mean O'Neal got a CHAIR thrown at him...
The thing is if Artest didn't go in the crowd after someone threw a beer at him, Ben would not be getting the blame for anything. At most Ben might have gotten a 1 day suspension for a flagrant foul but since this whole situtaion happened it makes what he did look a lot worse.
Fans should never go on the floor...players should never go into the crowd. Its really that easy..
should fans throw things at players, of course not. Dude who threw the beer should have been carted out, season tickets revoked, etc. BUT players should never ever go into the crowd. Of course this IS Ron Artest..you know..the guy who had a part time job at Circuit City because he liked the comraderie even though he was an NBA player..dude has a screw loose
Originally posted by zhuangshi: As you said about Artest, Big Ben is a PRO as well, and he should be able to handle his emotions a little better. The foul was not that hard, and for a guy that can bench close to 500lbs and curl 200, I'm extremely supprised to see the way he reacted. Ben normally is an extremely great player. Artest has had problems in the past, and well he was just trying to cool down, when a lunatic fan THREW A BEER AT HIM. I'm not saying what he did was right, but if you've just gotten into a fight and walked away and then someone throws a beer at you I'm pretty sure that if you are in Artest's shoes you react the same way. And I know it's hard to put yourself in that position, but I mean you're 20something and you've pretty much got a bullzeye on your back...
Both Ben and Artest should get the same fines/penalties seeing as Ben pretty much was the cause of the severity of the altercation. This is something that shouldn't have happened on all parts, but once you get something thrown at you, that is pretty much assault and you have the RIGHT to defend yourself. I mean O'Neal got a CHAIR thrown at him...
he threw a glass of beer at him....how exactly is artest RIGHT to then in going after him if after a guy throws a beer at him? how is he "defending himself"? it's not like someone threw a bottle at him, a can at him, a rock at him, it was a plastic glass of beer that simply sprayed on him. it wasn't like artest was in a corner with no escape route. his life wasn't in danger, not was he in danger of any type of physical bodily harm from a PLASTIC CONTAINTER OF LIQUID. sure, everyone has a right to defend themselves, but they don't have a right to retaliate against someone for something so stupid.
as for wallace, i'm not quite sure how he really has anything to do with what happened outside of the court. sure, maybe he overreacted after getting fouled but, that happens all the time in any game, any sport and it happened on court, not in the stands.
the fans. well, the ones that were on the court, they've got nothing to argue. they were on the court illegally and at that point, sure, i could see how you could argue artest was defending himself because well, the fans shouldn't be there. but going after the fans in the stands over a stupid beer being thrown at him??? no excuse.
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Originally posted by wingsfan: </font><blockquote>quote:</fon t><hr />Originally posted by zhuangshi: As you said about Artest, Big Ben is a PRO as well, and he should be able to handle his emotions a little better. The foul was not that hard, and for a guy that can bench close to 500lbs and curl 200, I'm extremely supprised to see the way he reacted. Ben normally is an extremely great player. Artest has had problems in the past, and well he was just trying to cool down, when a lunatic fan THREW A BEER AT HIM. I'm not saying what he did was right, but if you've just gotten into a fight and walked away and then someone throws a beer at you I'm pretty sure that if you are in Artest's shoes you react the same way. And I know it's hard to put yourself in that position, but I mean you're 20something and you've pretty much got a bullzeye on your back...
Both Ben and Artest should get the same fines/penalties seeing as Ben pretty much was the cause of the severity of the altercation. This is something that shouldn't have happened on all parts, but once you get something thrown at you, that is pretty much assault and you have the RIGHT to defend yourself. I mean O'Neal got a CHAIR thrown at him...
he threw a glass of beer at him....how exactly is artest RIGHT to then in going after him if after a guy throws a beer at him? how is he "defending himself"? it's not like someone threw a bottle at him, a can at him, a rock at him, it was a plastic glass of beer that simply sprayed on him. it wasn't like artest was in a corner with no escape route. his life wasn't in danger, not was he in danger of any type of physical bodily harm from a PLASTIC CONTAINTER OF LIQUID. sure, everyone has a right to defend themselves, but they don't have a right to retaliate against someone for something so stupid.
as for wallace, i'm not quite sure how he really has anything to do with what happened outside of the court. sure, maybe he overreacted after getting fouled but, that happens all the time in any game, any sport and it happened on court, not in the stands.
the fans. well, the ones that were on the court, they've got nothing to argue. they were on the court illegally and at that point, sure, i could see how you could argue artest was defending himself because well, the fans shouldn't be there. but going after the fans in the stands over a stupid beer being thrown at him??? no excuse. </font>[/quote]Dude, I totally agree with every point you made.
Artest is a dumbass.
Ben is getting too much blame.
The fans who threw anything or went on the court have no execuses...awful.
I heard about this after-the-fact and I've been watching TV all day (including watching my Spurs lose to the Raptors ) hoping someone would reshow it. It's just hard to envision that the situation could escalate so quickly.
It's too bad the players went into the stands. I'd have hoped the players could have dealt with their situation on the court and that security had the assholes in the stands behind bars within the hour! Too much testosterone all the way around but I might have behaved just as badly under those circumstances.
) hoping someone would reshow it. It's just hard to envision that the situation could escalate so quickly. 
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