The Detriot Riot

[Wolfman]

I\'ve heard people blaming everyone, including the players, the fans, the refs, the coaches, security, and beer.  None of these are to blame.  The real culprit here is gangsta rap, with an assist from Marilyn Manson.

[davepeck]

if john kerry won the election, this never would have happened...


but seriously.. in my opinion, the players need to know their role. if a fan throws something onto the court, at a player, etc, it\'s up to security to take care of them, have them prosecuted, etc. it\'s not the job of the millionaire player, who makes his money from said fan in the stands, to go up and beat the shit out of said fan himself. to me, that\'s complete bullshit. i think the fans and the players involved should all be punished heavily.. i dunno though.. i have a hard time feeling bad for the players in this whole thing though..

[leith]

Yeah it\'s not like Artest couldn\'t get his uniform washed. Also he didn\'t even hit the right guy that threw the cup!!  Totally uncalled for.

[skalnbyc]

Distasteful but hey, what do you really expect from a ghetto rat like Artest?  

Hope he gets a 10 year unpaid suspension.

This is the one time I would to see someone win a frivolous lawsuit.  Hope those sleazy lawyers suck Artest dry.

[ChrisPitch]

A mockery of basketball, athletics, and life in general

[freddiewaht]

lets not forget about that punk jermaine oneal...this is why i absolutely hate basketball..these losers dont even realize that they are actually looked up to by kids and considered a roll model..thats just sad.

[Wolfman]

Originally posted by freddiewaht
lets not forget about that punk jermaine oneal...this is why i absolutely hate basketball

Agreed.  As if I needed any more reason to not watch the NBA.

I sympathize with Artest here.  The guy has an anger management problem that he is already getting help for.  He gets provoked by Wallace, but for the first time in his life he walks away from the conflict.  Lying on the scorer\'s table is dumb, but he did an unbelievable job for himself by just walking away and pretending he was somewhere else.  Then he gets provoked all over again by a meathead fan.  Anger management is a real problem for some people.  I\'m tired of hearing people without this problem saying "He shoulda just stayed clam."  That\'s easy for you to say.  Telling someone with a bona fide anger management problem that they should have been calm is the same as telling someone who is mentally challenged that they should have been smarter, or telling someone with ADHD that they should have payed attention.  It\'s really easy to sit there and say that when you can just be intelligent or rational or attentive whenever you want to.  Not everyone can do that.  Artest was getting provoked over and over, he can\'t deal with that.  It\'s like giving an alcoholic an open bar and 500 people in his face yelling at him to drink and then criticizing him for drinking.  That\'s just not fair.  The instigating fans are the real culprits here, and the Indiana coaches get some blame too for not dragging him out as soon as trouble started.  They\'re his coaches, they\'re with him every day and know his problems, they should have an emergency action plan by now.  Artest should not get off scott-free, nor was he justified to go into the stands, but it\'s just not fair to provoke a guy like that.  

Judge Wolfman says:

Wallace: 15 games.  First wrongdoing of any kind, woulda only got 5 if it weren\'t for the towel.

Artest: 20 games.

O\'Neal: 30 games.  Unbelievably dumb following Artest into the stands.  He probably woulda followed him off a cliff.

Jackson: 50 games + criminal charges.  I\'d love to suspend him for the season, but Indiana\'s owner just slipped me $50,000 to make sure he was back for the playoffs

Cup-throwing fan: 6 months of hard time + a year\'s probation and AA.

[freddiewaht]

an anger management issue dosent excuse shit..wolfy,did you happen to see the little kids in the crowd crying their eyes out???although ive never even heard of him til yesterday,hes an asshole who deserves to be made an example of...if i was sitting right there,i probably wouldve soaked the punk too...play basketball,dont lay down on the scorers table..

[leith]

Anger management issues are a freakin\' cop out. It IS NOT a disease and happens to be a personality trait. Personality traits can be maintained. Ron Artest is a millionaire punk. He has anger management problems that I\'m sure he can throw a few mill to his therapist to help him out with rather than pummel some poor ass who made a dumb decision.

[skalnbyc]

I definitely do not agree with the anger management excuse.  We live in a nation were everyone claims to be a victim and every action can be excused.  

The worst part is that it sounds like the jerks may have hit some more innocent fans as they climbed up the seats.  

I love basketball but have very little respect for many of the players because they have no respect for anything.

[DocEllis70]

freddie..all this basketball talk reminds me of our backyard games of....nevermind..2nd \'g\'in the series of 2

[skalnbyc]

Do you guys playn b-ball?  If so, we can start a thread for a game the morning after Porter\'s to see if poeple want to play.  I played 4 hours the last 2 days and would like to play with the Breakfast family.  Got to get Dave away from his Lakers on tv and onto a real court.

[freddiewaht]

what we played, probably couldnt be officially classified as basketball..just a coupla freinds playin a freindly(overly rascist)game of horse,or something else....

did anyone hear tha tone of the dudes who got punched out was the dude from entourage??

[skalnbyc]

Let\'s play some real ball on Thurs. morning and I\'ll whip your asses with behind the back 360 layups son.

[freddiewaht]

me tryin to play actualy basketball=me puking my brains out