I'm not a Pistons fan, nor an NBA fan and I still think this is a great move. If you feel so bad about the Pacers and Artest, buy his album.

Maybe if I liked rap. I have listened to it, and it sounds like a 3 year old rapping. Pretty ridiculous.

Can't believe I voted for you twice for the Juckett.

Where can I make a contribution to Ron Artest? The poor bastard will starve now!

I'm a Sixers fan. I think this penalty is fair. I also think that the players and fans involved should face criminal prosecution as outlined by CR (I believe) in the other thread. The prosecutor has said it will take a couple of weeks to decide who to file charges against if anyone. I hope s/he does the right thing too. It has nothing to do with being a fan and wanting to take away a rival. It has everything to do with wanting people to be held accountable for their actions.

You and I know exactly how you would react if everyone attacked you.

Several other players got the 1 game penalty for leaving the bench during an on court altercation.

Dola -

Stern is speaking live now on ESPN News. I think his statement sounds very good so far.

From what I hear, only one player did not leave the bench for both teams.

3 games for domestic violence
5 games for your 3rd time violating the anti-drug policy
1 game for pleading guilty to DUI
3 games for pleading guilty for Gun charges
60+ games for this ruckus?
Kermit Washington got 26 games for almost killing Rudy Tomjanovich. Granted that was decades ago, but still.

The union should flip its shit. 15 games for Jackson and Oneal would be more reasonable, and about 30 for Artest. My Cavs will benefit from all of this anyways, but these penalties are way too harsh.

Better and more profane than you? ;)

What a pansy. I hope Artest kicks his ass!!!

But isn't another way of looking at this that the other suspensions are too low for their cause rather than this being too high?

Most likely. Sorry I have only had 17 years on this earth, I am still learning.

I thought it was "Fuck the Police"?

I loved this.

Dont make fun, Artest could kick your ass too, you pansy!!!

:D

This is a radical departure from the normal scale. They just gave the Pacers, and Pacer Fans, more importantly, the death penalty for the season.

I agree with what you said here. Everyone's suspensions have been inflated in this fight. Jackson, O'Neal, Walace, and Artest deserve maybe half the games they got.

Like I couldn't tell with topic of this thread.


Todd

Definitely, I really want someone to ask Stern why the NBA thinks hitting your wife/girlfriend isn't that bad. Artest got a bigger suspension than a guy who tried to kill his coach.

I agree that Pacer fans have been TOTALLY wronged, but no one is to blame except those involved.

One of Stern's comments just now was to the effect that punishments have been too lenient in the past which has lowered expectations of players regarding what acceptable behavior is. He feels he needs to take drastic steps to make sure all players know that the league is serious about raising its standards for now and in the future.

Does anybody find it amusing that the Colts are gonna be in Detroit this weekend?

A writer just asked why Fred Jones wasn't suspended?

Maybe it was because he went into the stands and tried to pull Artest away. Then he got jumped from behind by a 300 pound guy who was supposedly credentialized... lets suspend the guys who are trying to stop the insanity.

This follows Sal Pal's brilliant "do you feel responsible for the CLemson-Carolina fight?" question. The media are fucking idiots.

And man did that big dude lay a whoppin' on him!

I think the reason why the suspension is so high is because the NBA knows it need to make an example of these players. The NBA can not afford to have this happen again.

I think that on-the-court and off-the-court matters are seperate. The NBA is not responsible for what you do off the court, but they are responsible for whatever happens on the court. The court system does the first, and usually leagues do take action after the decision comes down.

I also think that the fans responsible for any unprovoked attacks should be fined, thrown in jail, and banned from all Pistons games. Set an example that throwing objects and punches isn't acceptable.

Off court matters are what has given the league a bad name over the recent years. Maybe the leagues image wouldnt be so harsh if they had been giving guys 10 games for DUI's and 20 games for Gun charges, and 50 games for domestic violence all along.

Question is, can they? I'm sure the CBA prevents them, or restricts them.

I think I could lay "a whoopin" on anybody if they were ingaged with someone with there back to me. You are pretty tickled about this whole situation since Wallace only got 6 games, and the Pacers are pretty well done.

Right call by the NBA.

I'm surprised that the Pistons were not fined for their fan behavior, but hopefully the legal process will sort that out.

Also... whoever is in charge of security in Detroit needs to get canned.

Something just seems a little one sided about this. Indianas season is toast and Detroit loses Ben Wallace for 6 games.

I didn't see him throwing punches at fans. did you?

I think it was that white European guy. Maybe he has been through enough football riots to stay put?

Taken from a very good NBA CBA Faq.

http://members.cox.net/lmcoon/salarycap.htm#55

Also

Nope, you're right. So what have we learned? Next time you want to shape an NBA season, load up on beer and take aim at the opposing team. Its not up to the home team to provide any protection. Do whatever you can to provoke the shit out of them. They cant throw out 20,000 people.

The others didn't happen while in uniform.

I guess I should have asked the next logical question. Was he hit by fans?

the HEAD of Palace Security was right in the middle of the scrum SECONDS after it happened. you try stopping a dozen enraged large athletes.

and take a look around what other papers are saying, the heads of most teams security in the NBA are saying theres really no way to prevent what happned.
so take your canned comment to bed with you.

looks like some charities are going to have a very nice holiday season

At least Artest will never have to wonder if he could have made it in the music business.

Personally, I think the suspensions went a bit overboard. Stern is fighting a losing battle if he expects those of us who haven't watched the NBA in about a decade to come back now.

But knocking the Pacers out for a year makes for good press, so why not give it a try?

I knew I should have thought better before joining a "discussion" on this. OK Dad. I'll take that comment to bed with me.

Are you 5?

When did this board lose the ability to have a discussion without acting like a bunch of 5 year olds?

Exactly. Try going after some of your company's customers while on the clock and see how your company treats you. You wouldn't be suspended, you would be terminated. Especially when your defense is "Someone threw something at me so I had to defend myself by hitting the first person that I encountered."

Of course, I still think that Detroit should have to play a few home games behind closed doors as part of the penalty.

When HM was banned.

I don't have a problem with the Indiana suspensions, necessarily; seems a little harsh to have them all come down at once, but I understand that the NBA needed to send a message to the players.

Where I have the problem is that Wallace pretty clearly precipitated the whole thing by shoving Artest in the face and then throwing parts of his uniform at him, and he gets a measly six games.

Should his suspension have been as long as Artest's? No, for the reason stated - he wasn't the one takin' swings at fans. But six games is ridiculously light for having been the precipice of the events of last night. He shoulda been sitting for a dozen, minimum. What a piss-poor example HE set, and having the Pistons get off lightly in this whole thing by comparison is just going to encourage more behavior like this by other groups of drunken louts.

I mean, hell, why not? If the players don't do anything about it, then you've "won," in a sense, because you're forcing them to take the increased abuse. If they do, then you can count on hamstringing the opposition. It's win-win.

Doesn't make a lot of sense, I agree, to risk jail time and criminal prosecution in the name of "helping" your team, but then, the sorts of fans who would do this sort of thing generally aren't thinking clearly in the first place.

That pretty much sums it up.

At least give me the decency of a reach-around then.

“There are other issues that the NBA must urgently focus on at this time. First, we must redefine the bounds of acceptable conduct for fans attending our games and resolve to permanently exclude those who overstep those bounds. Participants in and around the court must be assured complete protection from unacceptable fan behavior. Second, we must re-examine the adequacy of our current security procedures in Detroit and our other 28 arenas. The actions at Friday’s game, though unprecedented, must now be factored into all efforts to guarantee the well-being of our fans. Third, we must develop and implement new NBA rules to assure that the unavoidable confrontations likely to occur in the heat of competition are not allowed to escalate to the level we witnessed on Friday even prior to the egregious behavior by individuals in the stands.”


These were taken from Stern's press conference

I wonder how many complaints we get when the NBA starts kicking fans out for "questionable" and "objectionable" conduct

*quotes added for the subjective nature of the words*