More confirmation

There are millions of reasons why not (Part 1)

Interestingly enough, ESPN.com has a poll (http://proxy.espn.go.com/chat/sportsnation/polling?event_id=1010) up about this incident. One of the questions is 'Who is most to blame for Friday night's brawl in Detroit?' The choices are:

• Ron Artest
  
• Detroit fans
  
• Detroit security
  
• Referees
  
• Ben Wallace
  

I chose Ron Artest, because as you wrote - no matter what happens, there simply is no excuse for a player to go into the stands after a fan.

The most popular answer in the poll was the fans. While I think the fans played a major part in exacerbating the situation, and their actions are completely inexcusable, Artest still made a decision, and this is important, to ENTER the stands and try to beat someone down. Because someone threw beer at him.

One of the things I found disgusting were the comments after the game by all of the ESPN talking heads about how this wasn't about restraint, that Ron Artest (and Stephen Jackson, who also ran into the seats) was just trying to protect temselves from the 'assault' Artest had just been a victim of.

Now, the fan should NEVER have thrown anything. That's completely unacceptable, and he should be prosecuted to the same extent as someone who would yell 'fire' in a theater. His actions went beyond simply throwing something to piss someone off - they were intended to create the bedlam that ensued. More on how to punish that guy later.

It's the whole 'Artest couldn't help it, he had to protect himself' logic that simply fails.

1. Artest has millions of reasons to stay out of the stands. Part of being paid to play professional sports is learning to deal with fan reaction. Detroit fans reacted in an embarrassingly poor way on Friday night, but as a professional, Ron Artest has to act differently. Additionally, he HAS to know that each of his swings will cost him millions more in lawsuits. He just has to stay out of the stands - I would argue that it is more then his personal responsibility to walk away. It's part of his job to avoid that kind of conflict.
   
2. I heard all kinds of 'fight or flight' rhetoric last night, which is insane. By jumping to this kind of judgement - that this is entirely the fans' fault - commentators, coaches, and players are just reinforcing the stereotype of NBA player as street thug-gangster. The natural conclusion for whitebread America is that these guys are 'born fighters' 'from the streets' who protect what's theirs at all costs. They have to fight - it's all they know or ever will - and that's just garbage. It's a cop out, and borderline racist, the wrong conclusion to try and give, especially when the only Pacer really visible on the screen as actively trying to hold guys back was Austin Croshere: a big tall white guy.
   
3. If somebody threw a beer at me at a game, or even worse, my wife, and I attacked them, I would be in trouble, not only with my wife, but probably with the authorities. Sorry, but getting doused with a beverage is not a good excuse to throw down.
   

There are millions of reasons why not (Part 2)

Lastly, the fans. I'm not so sure there's nothing that can be done. Why not institute a system like they have in Europe with football venues, where facial recognition systems are used to recognize the troublemakers and keep them out of the stadiums. Folks who throw things from the stands should never be allowed to attend a sporting event in person again. Ever. There are ways to make this happen - it's just a matter of cost.

Imagine for a moment that I take a small caliber pistol into a Rockets game. Near the end of the second quarter, I stand up, take aim, and gun down my least favorite player on the court (on the opposing team, of course). Let's further imagine I get away - escape the arena. What would happen? First, the authorities would review tape to try and get a good shot of my face. Next, they would probably be able to find out the seat I was in, and would then be able to track me down, since, like most of the folks in those lower-bowl courtside seats at the Palace last night, I have a season ticket package and the team has all of my contact information. Forgetting for a moment that I would probably be going to jail, it would not be difficult to prevent me from ever being able to buy a ticket again. All automated ticket systems would be closed off to me - I would have to get friends to buy tickets for me, as my name and address would be blocked in the ticketing system, or I would have to buy tickets at the arena in cash (no credit cards). However, the aforementioned facial recognition systems would prevent me from entering the arena.

Extreme? Yes. But it goes to show that they can do something to punish unruly fans, and I would be more then happy to pay a surcharge on my ticket price to help subsidize some type of fan screening system like this.

-YTee

Who to "blame"

I'd agree with your choice of Artest as the one most at fault. Artest was the one person who made a decision that ignited the entire incident. I don't think that he was entirely wrong in responding the way he did, and I don't think he was the worst offender in the incident. Whoever threw that chair must have been suffering from a complete and total lack of intelligence and restraint.

Still, Artest charging into the stands was the tipping point, the lit matchstick, of the riot, and if he had taken the fan's physical insult and moved on, then the injury and harm would have been exponentially less. Artest could have prevented the whole thing from even starting by just walking away, but he didn't.