Fight in Piston/Pacer Game

[LameR]

Here's a link for the oblivous: http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=1927380



My thoughts:

There's a line between being a fan, and being an idiot. Tonight that line was crossed and humanity hit another low. You can blame whoever you want, Ben Wallace probably shouldn't have pushed Artest, Artest shouldn't have gone into the stands, blah blah blah. It comes down to the fans in my opinion. Artest was calm, Wallace even threw a towell in his face and he didn't react. What kind of an f'ing idiot throws beer on a player? You expect Artest to not come after you, jeez! Something needs to be done about security near the benches. Did you see the guy who walked onto the court and confronted Artest as he was starting to leave. Artest was ready to let it go, but then noooo this idiot has to come try to be a badass by either saying something to him or trying to fight him, whatever. He got punched by Artest, and then decked by Jermaine, he deserved worse in my mind. Onto the exit. So, when is it ever acceptable to spit, throw bottles, or beer on someone? In my mind, never. How can people be this stupid? Seriously, I really want to know what anyone that tried dousing any of those players, or fighting them was thinking. Sporting events are supposed to be fun, for the family too. There's freaking kids around and people are showing them that if there's a fight, you better go in and make it bigger. If you have beer, it's a good idea to throw it son. I'm just at a loss to how people can be that dumb. "It was the heat of the moment." BS. There's no excuse to ever act the way those fans did. People of Detroit should be saddened by the fact that this happened and that some of the idiots in their city are going to end up representing their entire city on the news. I'm just pissed off at how stupid people can be these days.

[BainbridgeShred]

You mentioned the cause a few times... Beer. You get alchohal in a guy whose testosterone is already raging due to being at a sporting event cheering on his favorite team and it's a recipe for disaster.

Not that it's an excuse.

[shreddaily]

So, when is it ever acceptable to spit, throw bottles, or beer on someone? .

When the dude has boxed down several of the crowd members.
The fan that threw the beer was out of line and should have been ejected, maybe fined. But Artest was the one to take it to the next level. Punching 2 scared looking fans. Artest and O'neil should recieve equal punishment as the fans, if not heavier.

Just playing devils advocite I think the fans were out of line too.

[slapdash21]

fans are often at least partially to blame in situations like this...like in cases involving heckling (or throwing of beer). the players know they will be heckled at some point in time...its to be expected, but its just not necessary, especially when it gets to the point of throwing stuff at players. thats just stupid...someone that is already pissed off from fighting, is very large, and you throw something at them? fucking stupid. but players should have more self-control...they need to get used to stuff like this and not go nuts.

[HG]

Jermaine O'neal and Ron Artests sure do have nice right hooks

[FlexThis]

[HooD]

If there are any videos online yet, post it, cause I haven't seen the footage. I always enjoy viewing a good sports brawl/riot.

[ville]

http://www.niksula.cs.hut.fi/~tvenhola/Fight.avi

[max]

when you are a professionnal athlete you have kids looking up to you. You can quickly gain "rolemodel" status. I think they have a moral requirement of not stepping out of line. No matter how much the fans "holler". Honestly guys you should see what soccer players (it's that game where you kick a ball have to put up with, we're not talking being thrown popcorn or beer here..

[sniikeri]

Now after these news arrived to Finland I can comment and say: That's just so stupid. I know that this "I'm gonna kick your ass" -culture is quite common in many sports. Only one sport is taking it further and it's called boxing. It isn't called boxing for nothing. Let's not change other sports like it.
Step into ring if you want to fight.

And that fan who threw that beer? Idiotic.

Actually the only legal ways to hurt someone badly are boxing and ice hockey. If you go punching someone in the street you get a fine or perhaps go to jail but if you do it in an ice hockey game you get a 2-min-penalty.

Stupid white men. And black also.

[C-Fan]

I think we all know this would have NEVER happened if Kerry got elected.

[Tsiangkun]

I've heard there are internet videos of people taking more than a beer to the face and for much less cash than pro athletes.