Holy fuck, that was harsh!

I expected Artest to be gone for a long time but not the the year. Seems too extreme to me.

The only thing I like is hopefully this will teach these players that it's not the streets of New York, it's a business. Act like it and let the authorites deal with idiot fans.

If you attack someone on the street like that then you'd be charged with assault. Hopefully those idiotic fans get charged!!

I wrote the same thing in a long ranting email to the NBA, but I said I hoped it was for contribution to assault via alcohol sales, not lack of security.

I don't know what's in the mind of the NBA or what brought them to the decisions they made. I can't say that I disagree with them though. Getting a beer thrown on me might piss me off, but by one player entering the stands, it escalated into a riot situation. If the player didn't go to the stands, security could have hauled the whole section somewhere if they had to and charged the guy who threw it. If the player never went into the stands, there probably wouldn't have been a resulting fan or fans on the court challenging players. Its really a two wrongs don't make anyone right scenario. The fan who threw it was wrong, but turning the arena into free-for-all WWF is bad for the NBA, bad for all sports, and a lot of people complain that the overpaid players aren't even good examples for kids anymore....beating a fan sure helps that image, overreacting and resulting to violence doesn't help that image. If somone in the crowd died from stampeding or one of these finely tuned athletes landing a perfect blow would all the opinions change?

I'm sorry (really its not personal just debate) but once Artest crossed into the stands, his arguement about lack of security loses all credibility with me. He put himself in harms way instead of yelling for guards to go kick the guys ass. Late alcohol sales is a possible angle but again, the event was that a beer (could be a coke) was tossed at a player, the player(s) escalated it to being outright violent. I'm sure that an angry sober fan could be just as stupid to toss something but agreed that its less likely.

My immediate reaction as I watched the whole thing unfold was that Artest would get kicked from the NBA altogether.....there are constant arguements about how athletes are payed a lot of money, should quit their bitching, and be a role model.....either they are held to a standard or not. I say let em jump in the stands if they want, but lets go back to paying them far smaller salaries and lower ticket prices, etc. They are paid to be Professional Basketball Players.....somewhere they have to be held to being Professional.

(ok you can all hate me now hehe)

http://espn.go.com/outdoors/hunting/...1/1928765.html

and people think Ron Artest is Crazy

I think they're going to hold off on criminal charges until the end of the month but I think there will have to be some in order to avoid major lawsuits. The fan that threw the drink should be charged with a couple of different crimes.

On one hand the NBA players are paid grotesque amounts of money and should act as role models but unfortunately this is the exact type of behavior that will get him more attention then scoring 40+. He acted like it was ballroom brawl and now has to accept responsibility for it.

On the other hand he's a professional athlete that’s torqued up by his coach, fans and teammates to a level of hyper activity so this stuff can happen at any time.

I guess the bottom line is that if he can't handle being that torqued up then what else can the NBA do? They’re letting this guy come back without first proving he can handle being a professional athlete. At least I haven’t heard of any counseling that’s being required. Normally when people get dangerously out of control some type of counseling is required. The suspension may be harsh but they’re letting him come back without forcing him to deal with his anger management issues and that’s getting off easy.

What's so unusual about footie match violence? :D

Jermaine O'Neal's suspension for his role in the Pacers-Pistons brawl is reduced by 10 games. But will the NBA honor the arbitrator's ruling? Ron Artest's ban stands.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=1951675

I agree and disagree; they are once more saying that Washington almost killing Rudy T is better then what Artest did, 72 games is just too much, I think 25 games is pushing it.

I also saw Larry Brown say he almost quit the Pistons over this, and I am shocked they are struggling like they are.

A dark dark year for the NBA when 2 of the best teams get fucked over a stupid mistake that could have been prevented by none other then the NBA itself.