NBA Suspends Players after Shameful Fight in Detroit

America prides itself as being able to do anything any other society can do while doing it bigger and better. In the case of sports-related violence, though, the English and Dutch soccer hooligans have been the world champs. Until Friday night, that is. Not only did the fans riot and cause mayhem, but also several players participated in the chaos. Even in its most vicious form, one can recall no incident in which players of European soccer entered the stands to beat spectators. America is number one.

The videotape makes clear what happened, and all the spin-doctoring in the world won't undo it. Ron Artest of the Indiana Pacers committed a cheap and violent foul on Ben Wallace of the world champion Detroit Pistons. Mr. Wallace retaliated, and the benches cleared. Mr. Artest, sensitive to the fact that he has a deservedly bad reputation, lay down on the press table as his way of staying out of the violence. At that point, one of Detriot's fans, a man whose mother should be ashamed of him, tossed a plastic cup of beer on Mr. Artest. Mr. Artest ran up into the stands, and other players joined him. The nonsense ended with the police escorting the players from the court, while more beer, some chairs and punches flew.

In response, Messrs. Artest and Wallace along with Jermaine O'Neal and Stephen Jackson have been suspended indefinitely (Later reports say Mr. Artest is done for the year, and the total number of suspended players is now nine). For every game missed, those four players will lost $75,000, $85,000, $180,000 and $60,000 respectively. This will fall less hard on Mr. Artest, who already asked to be excused from playing so he could promote a rap album (true justice would be served if is wish were granted and he faded into anonymity). Criminal charges and civil suits will follow no doubt. And it would be great if the Pistons could find a way to ban some of the fans involved from attending future games.

Some commentators have proven themselves possessing the same idiocy as that exhibited at the Auburn Hills arena on Friday. Alonzo Mourning of the Nets said, “You are human. [Artest] reacted without thinking. Is that his fault? Hell, no, it's not his fault.” Mr. Mourning's view sums up what has gone wrong. Acting without thinking is Mr. Artest's fault. It lies at the heart of the riot. Acting after thinking would have resulted in a much happier outcome.

Meanwhile, Piston coach Larry Brown summed it up, “This is all about as culture where it's some kind of a rule that you can't back down . . . . Maybe I should start accepting that we live in a world where way too many people, and I'm not just talking about sports here, think they can say or do anything.” One can't back down without losing one's manhood, and one can do or say whatever one wants whenever one pleases. And no one is responsible. European soccer hooligans will have to step up their game to compete with this.


© Copyright 2004 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.


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