Unruly fans must pay a price
By DREW SHARP
FREE PRESS SPORTS WRITER

Suddenly, a titillating pre-game skit on Monday Night Football doesn't seem that offensive, does it?

Disgust reached a new low at the Palace Friday night and the NBA will likely echo the far-reaching outrage by taking unprecedented disciplinary steps against the principals in the riot masquerading as a Pistons-Indiana basketball game.

The principals, that is, except for those fans who ignorantly pumped oxygen into a dying flame, destroying in a few minutes the efforts of those who painstakingly spent years trying to reconstruct the national reputation of this city.

I was raised here. I have fervently defended my hometown, strongly attacking the hackneyed diatribes from outsiders whose only knowledge of this city comes condensed in archival sound bites and video clips.

But I'm ashamed to be a Detroiter today.

There is no defense for the shameful conduct of those fans that transformed an already ugly episode into a sick microcosm of an overly permissible society.

Anything goes now. The interactive world of the Internet and the proliferation of sports talk radio have given too many fans a false sense of empowerment. They believe their role has extended beyond cheering and booing and that they're entitled to instantly react, to whatever extent. And the players just have to sit there and take the abuse because, through some warped rationalization, that's part of the cost for making millions upon millions in a career that glorifies what basically remains a kid's game.

But fans don't have rights. They have privileges. And they can be easily stripped away.

The NBA has an opportunity to make a bold statement here. If teams insist on selling alcohol at venues, keeping a potent revenue stream flowing as easily as the beer, then the league should hold the teams accountable when fan conduct goes over the edge as was the case Friday.

Suspend players already implicated in the melee additional games -- with pay, if necessary -- as a team penalty for fan misconduct.

Palace President Tom Wilson referred to the episode Saturday as an "aberration" in reference to Pistons' fans, but looking at this in a collective sense, it marks a growing trend of fan-player belligerence throughout sports.

Something needs to be done.

The argument that those fans who directly instigated the Pacers storming the Palace stands can be criminally held accountable so why further punish the team for their conduct is weakened by the reality that Ron Artest and Stephen Jackson and Jermaine O'Neal may also face criminal charges, and yet their suspensions will hurt the Pacers collectively because three of their better players won't be available.

Artest was wrong to go into the stands. He crossed the line. The man is emotionally unstable. He must face the consequences regardless of how strict, but if there are fans foolish enough to cross that boundary separating them from the game then a message should be sent to them that their individual stupidity carries a ripple effect.

There was plenty of blame to go around for what happened.

Ben Wallace triggered the chain reaction, overreacting to Artest's hard foul with 45 seconds remaining in an Indiana blowout. It wasn't a flagrant foul, but Wallace was boiling because the defending champions were easily handled by a team that made it clear during the off-season that it didn't truly respect the Pistons' title.

The referees were useless. They should have gotten Artest and Wallace off the floor immediately after the initial altercation.

Palace security was overmatched.

But there has to be more to fan accountability than merely charging those isolated idiots with inciting a riot, slapping them on the wrist -- a small punitive price to pay for the self-gratification they disgustingly gain for putting a pampered prima donna "in his proper place."

There are no innocents here.

And Detroit will take the hit for it.

We loudly complain when national scribes like Sports Illustrated's Rick Reilly dig up relics and pass them off as fresh symbols of Detroit's problems.

But the actions of a few mindless inebriates gave the media hit men enough ammunition to fire away at the city for another 20 years.





Link: http://www.freep.com/news/latestnews/pm1489_20041120.htm

Pacers scared, shocked by Detroit fans

By JON KRAWCZYNSKI, AP Sports Writer
November 21, 2004

AP - Nov 20, 10:03 pm EST
More Photos


INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- The Indiana Pacers were frightened when spectators began hurling chairs, drinks, and ice at them in one of the most violent exchanges between players and fans in U.S. sports history.

``It was a scary situation,'' center David Harrison said. ``It's literally being in a riot.''

Ron Artest was suspended for the rest of the season Sunday, Stephen Jackson for 30 games, Jermaine O'Neal for 25, Ben Wallace for six, Anthony Johnson for five, and four players for one game apiece for their roles in Friday night's brawl at Detroit.

After avoiding an on-court fight with Wallace late in the game, Artest bolted to the stands, where he was hit by a cup thrown by a fan. Jackson and O'Neal also punched fans, who showered the Pacers with debris as they left the court.

``I don't know what the regulations are for these types of things, but maybe they need to be looked at more closely,'' Austin Croshere said after the six healthy and eligible Pacers lost to Orlando 86-83 on Saturday night. ``You've seen it in baseball ... it seems to be happening more and more.''

Harrison was hit several times in the stands while trying to break up the mayhem. He said Artest responded instinctively.

``If someone is throwing something at you with intent to harm you, you're going to defend yourself,'' he said. ``It doesn't matter if the person is a fan or whatever. I just wonder what would happen if we went to where they work and harassed them for 48 minutes to an hour and then threw a beer at them when they were trying to leave. We'd go to jail.''