If you haven't heard what happened last night at the Pistons-Pacer NBA game last night, here's a quick run down of the story. Ben Wallace was going up for a layup when Ron Artest, everyone's favorite NBA clown, fouled him hard from behind. Ben Wallace turned and shoved Ron Artest with two hands to his face/neck. The benches cleared, and both teams were involved in a minor scuffle. However, after the scuffle things got worse.
Ron Artest was calming down on the scorer's table when someone from the audience threw a full cup and him. Artest charged the stands, pummeling the fan he suspected of throwing the drink. Jermaine O'neal followed, along with several other Pacers and took all their NBA player rage out on the fans. The fans in turn took out their frustrations on the NBA players heads.
Here's a video of the event. It shows just how crazy things were. Before you watch, let me point out the most cowardly thing to watch for. When there's a chubby latino kneeling on the floor, watch carefully as Jermaine O'neal comes from off camera, and sucker punches him while he's still down and not looking toward Jermaine. He lays the latino out on the floor, and is again restrained by teammates.
There's no doubt in my mind that Ron Artest should be let go from his team. I also have no doubt that he will receive nothing more than a 3 months suspension. The other players on the Pacers team that were involved will hopefully receive the same. As far as Ben Wallace is concerned, I think he should get a 6-10 game suspension, which is an acceptable amount of time for a normal team rivalry scuffle. In this case, he should get a bit of extra time just for being a part of the cause for the riot.
The fans in the stadium, should they be identified as culprits in provoking or taking part in the violence, should face criminal charges and face bans from all sporting events in the NBA. The latter would be hard to enforce, but it should still happen. The bottom line is that on both sides of this brawl, there were people who could not control themselves. Any time you have a player or person who can't control themselves, you should never put that person back in a position to lose control. Players who lack restraint, and fans who lack restraint shouldn't be given the opportunity to let this happen again.
I'm interested to see what the NBA commissioner is gonna do in this case. I'll post results as I come across 'em.