The Artest Suspension (Updated)

By now pretty much everyone has heard about, and probably given their opinion of, the big brawl between the Indiana Pacers and the Detroit Pistons that managed to spill into the crowd. Nine players ended up with suspensions, the longest going to Ron Artest for the remainder of the season.

You know what? I think Artest and a few of the other players deserved suspensions, although I think the suspensions handed out were too harsh. And, before I go on, allow me to say that I am no fan of Artest's in specific, or the Pacers in general.

Yep, he definitely reacted in an inappropriate manner. He definitely crossed the line that a professional NBA player should never cross. But what about the fans?

I won't hide the fact that I think that the fans who were throwing drinks and trash at the players deserved a response. In fact, imagine what would happen if you were to go into any of their places of business, heckle them for an hour, and then throw a drink at them--I imagine that they would probably be at least a little bit cranky. In fact, I imagine the that the response might border on the violent side.

As for those fans that actually came out onto the floor to confront players, they get no sympathy from me whatsoever. If you go after someone and you get your butt kicked, then maybe you learned a valuable lesson.

Artest shouldn't have gone into the audience after the jerk who threw his drink, but that doesn't make the cat in the crowd any less of an ass. Fans of sporting events have grown increasingly uncivil. Over the last year or so, I remember stories about baseball umpires being attacked by fans coming out of the stands and another by a fan who threw his cell phone.

Regardless of salary, should athletes really be expected to be okay with people throwing drinks at them? Years ago, during the Elway days, I remember watching a game between the Browns and the Broncos where the TV crew caught fans throwing batteries at the players. Not only is that kind of thing dangerous, it's ridiculous for the people in the stands to act like this is somehow acceptable behavior.

So, yeah, I grinned a little bit when I saw the fan get a little payback. I couldn't help but think, "Yeah, there should be some kind of a cost when you take cheap shots at a 6'7", 247 pound basketball player."

Read the story.

Update: For another view, check out Sean Hackbarth's post on the subject.