CNN just reported that Stern decided that Oneal,Artest,Wallace and Jackson are out indefinetely.

its easy to see that now while ur sitting in ur chair watching the replays but it was chaos when it was happening. You have to try and look at this through the players eyes. Not the bird eye camera. After looking at the tape the first guy who got hit by artest was not the same guy getting hit by oneal. The first guy had a goatee the second guy did not. The second guy was the friend of the first guy who came to help the first guy but slipped on the floor filled with beer.

I gotta stand up for Jermain when it comes to hitting that guy Artest hit.....The guy was on the court and it looked like, from his stance he wanted to tangle with Artest....it almost looked like he was gonna pull something (as in knife or whatever)....The guy knew what he was doing, and he NEVER should have been on the court to begin with....I agree with whoever said if any fans come on the field of play at any time, they are free game...

I can feel why Artest did what he did, and I can say I want to justify it, but I won't because he, according to the letter of the law, shouldn't have done it.

Jackson came to the aid of a teammate, but also threw gasoline on the fire by doing what he did....

In all, what happens is not what I think should happen....I think everything boils down to this...

Artest gets suspended until the playoffs....Jackson until the All-Star break....Wallace suspended for a game.....O'Neal gets a monetary fine, but a record monetary fine of like $500,000, if not more.

Also I think that the NBA will mandate league wide that all alcohol stop being served after the third quarter (or half time)...and the fans when identified will be banned from NBA arenas for a bit....

What I think should happen is Jackson and Artest suspended until the All-Star break, Wallace gets a monetary fine, O'Neal gets a monetary fine and games suspended at the Palace until at least after all-star break, if not the entire season.

As you can see I am swinging from what the league will do (penalizing players for behavior) to penalizing the fans. That cup was thrown well after stuff started calming down and reignited everything.

I actually like the Pistons team alot, but what those few fans did was ludicriss and an example must be set to fans league wide. No other sport has penalized fans before and fan interference is becoming an increasing problem.

Also, just a question, how big of an impact does have on the CBA after the season...you think the players say they want some type of protection from fans during games....

here is my assessment of the situation. artest is wrong for going into the stands obviously unless someone attacks his family which is'nt the case. but this is a man who has clear mental problems. he does not think like us. osme people are saying this is street mentality. no, it is mentality of a person who should be on more medication than tony soprano.
second, the fan knew this. this is artest and it does not take much to push his buttons especially after a near confrontation with a rival. he was calm on the table which is strange and doing anger management meditation ( i hope) when someone threw something at him. most people would hesitate and see who threw it. but artest with trhe adrenaline flowing went into the crowd. the fans got what they wanted. they were drunk and pissed and thought what every fan has but never reacted or did: piss a player we hate off. artest should get 15 to twenty games. but i agree that stephen jax was the biggest punk. he will probably said he was protecting artest which is fine but during the WHOLE ordeal he was the one running around starting troublr, trying to get into fights with dc or whoever. then we see him hitting multiple people min the crowd. he shoulwd be suspended for 20 games minimum.

now with artest clocking the fane, listen, if the fan was dumb enough to wander on the court and provoke a time bomb you deserve what you got. we all know, as sports fans, no matter what, you do not go onto the court or field. that is a security issue that has always been around. especially during a hostile situation, you are going to walk onto the court and aggravate an already teed off artest? would you jump in a lion's den and punch the lioness on the nose? true, the fan did not throw a punch but the fan did not go down to the court to say hi. the fans intention was unfavorable so in that aspect you could make a case of self-defense. then jermine o'neal probably saw the fan near artest and thought the fan was attacking so he came and clocked him. you can say he was protecting his teammate which could be true but the man was on the floor and the situation was diffused. people are bashing o'neal but the past three years, i always thought o'neal was the bright stars in the nba, on and off the court. as a matter of fact, since he left the jailblazers, he has been an ideal citizen. as a matter of fact, in the beginning of the ordeal, he was trying to calm people down. so he must have provoked one way or the other becuase he is not like this. but he should get at least 15 games suspension.

third, at least 10 fans should be arrested and prosecuted. even the people throwing things. in the court of law, that is assault. just becasue you pay to see these athletes play, does not give you the right to throw things and provoke violence. these fans made philly fans lok like choir boys. it was amazing that half of the people in the arena was acting like this, like roman gladiator times. hey, we all like to heckle to a degree falling short of racial slurs but this is clearly over the line.

We have to stop treating athletes as people who aren't human, some sort of super hero who cannot get hurt.

Artest gets shoved in the face by Wallace and keeps his cool, walks off, and is obviously angry. A fan showers him with beer and a plastic cup and he loses it. If you were ALMOST provoked and then something pushed you over the edge, you would react the same way Ron did. He's a human being, in a very emotional situation and he got pushed over the edge.

The punk fans in Detroit don't think he can do anything. If you are walking down the street and you see an extremely well built, 6 foot 5 and over 200 pound man, you will not under any circumstance throw anything at him. At the game, the people presume they just can't get in trouble and Artest lost it.

Fans were punching and attacking the players, they should get in trouble, yes, but not thrown out of the league. They can get hurt just like anyone else can, I love how those two punks who thought they were tough guys confront Artest and get absolutely demolished.

I wouldn't be surprised if the Pacers, if they aren't killed by the suspensions, win the championship this year. The chemistry that the Pacers will build after this game will be something I don't think I've witnessed in sports before, because it was a legitimate street fight and they all had each other's backs.

Seriously, how can you blame the players? They were getting things thrown at them (bottles, chairs, etc), being attacked, I'm glad those *******s were retaliated against.

Artest was wrong for going in the stands. However, I don't think what he did was entirely wrong. He was trying to stay out of the situation, then all of a sudden he gets hit with a drink. No player should get hit with things from the stands, the Detroit fans were just classless. Then you have fans hitting Fred Jones who is trying to stop the fighting and other idiots are running onto the court. Jermaine O'Neal should have been in the locker room at that point, but I don't blame him for hitting the fan on the court. The guy was asking for it by stepping onto the court and I don't blame Jermaine for what he did because the fan could've had a knife or something.

For all of the years I have been a Knick fan, I have hated the Pacers. However, I have to side with them on this one. The Detroit fans were just classless, drunk, idiots looking to cause trouble. Honestly, I will be surprised if any of the Pacers get signficantly more than 10 games in suspension.

I'm suprised Fred Jones got left out of this, during the initial melee while everybody was focused on Jackson and Artest (bout the same time Mahorn came into the picture) he was actually being blindsided by a very big fat guy who clocked him a few times on the head. Heard that the guy was pissed cos it was either Jones or Jackson who ran over his kid while trying to get to Artest.

ESPN's coverage is ridiculous, some blame have to go to the players especially O'Neal and Jackson. If they say JO and Jackson was coming to the aid of Artest then the same could be said of the fans as well. Remember there were women and children in the stands as well, just the act of rushing the stands might trample somebody's loved ones.

Not everybody was looking for a lawsuit that night

Posted by djsunyc:

i don't know what was in j.o's head but i will say this:

if a fan gets onto the court, you pretty much can should be able to do whatever you want to get him down b/c you have NO IDEA what he's going to do.

it happens alot in wrestling when a fan will jump into the ring, all the wrestlers just jump on him and beat the crap outta him. granted this is basketball but if you're on broadway and some fool runs onto the stage, either security takes him down or everyone jumps on him.

i don't know if j.o was headhunting but the action of jumping that particular fan was warranted.

that's true. but the problem in this case is the guy had already been hit pretty good, and security was on the way. it seems much more aggression on oneal's part than fear or caution, or even just defensive instinct

Posted by Kwazimodal:

Assault is the threat of violence,battery is the act itself.

OK how about assault and battery, but who cares about technicalities right now, it was just a dumb azz move....

Posted by tkf:

Posted by Kwazimodal:

Assault is the threat of violence,battery is the act itself.

OK how about assault and battery, but who cares about technicalities right now, it was just a dumb azz move....

The players care,they are the ones facing jail time and a few fans as well.