November 20, 2004

Motown Melee

If you missed the Motown Melee Friday night you couldn't miss the replays on news networks and ESPN. (I gave up on the game at half time since Pacers were controlling the Pistons.) It started with Detroit's Ben Wallace pushing Indiana's Ron Artest. They pushed and shoved. Eventually Artest was lying down on a table when a fan threw ice on him. I guess that fan thought the hot-headed Artest needed to cool off. That set the Pacer off, and he stormed into the stands flailing away at people. Fellow Pacer Stephen Jackson joined Artest in swinging wildly. Watching a brawl break out at a basketball game was awful enough, but what was most disturbing was Indiana's Jermaine O'Neal walking up to a fan and punching him.

There's plenty of blame to go around. Wallace shouldn't have shoved Ron Artest. Security could have been better. Fans shouldn't have tossed anything at any players. The garbage throwing when Artest was escorted off the court was disgusting. The referees should have done more to end the Artest-Wallace confrontation.

Many are at fault, but there's is one person who transformed this incident from an on-the-court affair into a league disgrace: Ron Artest. He's the one who responded to the ice toss by jumping into the stands and creating a mini riot. He's the one who created an environment where a host of people could have gotten seriously hurt. Ron Artest is a man with a long history of uncontrollable rage. Usually he just expressed his anger through technical fouls. Now it's escaladed considerably.

Players are suspended, and the local district attorney is investigating. Artest, Jackson, and O'Neal should be arrested. But beyond that, Artest, at minimum, should be suspended for the rest of the season. The NBA needs to do this. Simply creating another Michael Jordan won't solve their black eye.

"Basketball Brawl Hits NBA Hard"

UPDATE: For another view and some discussion read Bernard Moon's post on SportsBlog. Wes Roth has oodles of links.