The Brawl at the Palace

I've seen a lot of wild things in the world of sports, but I have never seen anything as wild as what I saw on TV Friday night when the Pistons-Pacers basketball game turned into a flat out insane brawl involving players and fans in the stands.

After taking a few days to soak all of this in, here's my two cents on the matter.

First, Ron Artest of the Pacers is an idiot. Period. As far as I'm concerned, he lit the fuse to this whole mess by committing a stupid hard foul on the Pistons' Ben Wallace in the late stages of the fourth period. The Pacers were up by 15 with under a minute to go in the game. It was over and Indiana was going to win. There was no need for Artest to do something that stupid with the game already in the bag.

Then to add matters, he decided to sit on top of the scorer's table as the two teams milled about exchanging words and shoves. Best thing for him to do was walk away, but for him to sit on the table was akin to taunting and adding fuel to an already volatile situation.

But then, when that idiot of a fan tossed the cup on Artest, the Pacers player crossed the line.

Granted, the fan was a complete jerk and had no right whatsoever to do that, but what Artest did to get into the stands and confront the fan (the wrong fan, by the way) and exchange blows, that was light years worse. He had no business going to the stands. None. And I don't want to hear that talk about the heat of the moment and disrespect and all that macho crap, a professional athlete has no right to go into the stands and confront a fan. Period. A true professional would've went to security, pointed out the nutjob who tossed the cup and had him ejected. That should've been the end of it. But, Artest, being the bully that he is, didn't go that route. So, as I said before, he lit the fuse to all of this and he's damn lucky that he only got suspended for the entire season. Considering all the other incidents he's been involved in, he's lucky he wasn't banned for life. The guy needs help.

There are others to blame for this too. Artest's teammate, or thug, Stephen Jackson is just as guilty, for first trying to start a fight on the court when the Indiana and Detroit players were jawing at each other after the hard foul and then for going into the stands after Artest and not trying to pull him back to the court or be a peacemaker, but to join in the fisticuffs. Another idiot who should be lucky he got only a 30 game suspension. Jermaine O'Neal of the Pacers, who's been trading pot shots at the world champ Pistons for several months after Detroit beat them in the conference finals last summer is another idiot for fighting with the fans as well.

And then there's the stupid fans, pumped up on beer concentrate, adrenaline and some insane egomaniacal trip that makes them think that they're part of the Pistons squad. The ones who threw the cup and the chair and the ones who got on the floor are all a bunch of jerks who got what they deserved. If it was up to me, I'd ban each and every one of them for life for doing something so stupid. You're a fan, for crying out loud! You can cheer, you can boo, but that's it. Anything else is crossing the line. You guys are no worse than the players who crossed the line to go into the stands.

Lastly, I want to talk about how the national media got on their moral high horse to criticize Detroit and how this was expected of the city. First of all, the brawl happened in Auburn Hills, a suburb some 30 plus miles away from Detroit. Second, you're supposed to be a neutral party, not see this as an opportunity to get a cheap shot in. All those announcers who called Detroit fans a bunch of punks and sissies (yes, I'm talking to the guys at ESPN) ought to be ashamed of yourselves. Don't lump a handful of knuckleheads with the rest of us fans. Remember last summer when the NBA Finals was here, not one single incident happened with us fans. Not one.

That's my feelings on the matter. I hope we never see an incident as ugly as that ever again.