November 21, 2004

The NBA imitates Slap Shot.

Hum, yeah two posts in a day, but this is too good to pass up and BREAKING NEWS!@# or something.

posted by Richer 20 years ago
  • play by play
  • It's a shame all around, this story.
  • ESPN seems pretty reasonable: asshats, buying a ticket does not entitle you to assault players by throwing bottles at their heads. If you throw hard objects at someone's face, he may choose to kick your arse.
  • The absolute best part is when a beer-tossing fan sees a gigantic NBA player coming after him, and the look on his face changes from smug armchair jock into one of complete and utter terror at realizing he's about to get the beatdown of a lifetime.
  • Pay me millions of dollars per year, and I will let everyone here at MoFi throw beverages at my head whenever they would like.
  • Rodgerd- Except, of course, that hitting someone in the head with a cup of beer does not earn a beatdown from a professional athlete. If Artest hadn't lept up and started fighting, there wouldn't have been a riot. And that Ronnie boy launched into the stands without knowing who hit him, and starts whaling on some unrelated guy (you can tell from the video that the first beer thrown was not by the guy who Artest went after). He just won the civil suit lottery.
  • Regardless of who's at fault (*cough* the fans *cough*), when professional athletes go for the fans like that, they're just opening up their wallets.
  • I have never been a big fan of the "pro athletes get paid millions to play sports, therefore they deserve [bad labor agreements/abuse in the press and by ignorant fans/etc/etc] argument. However pro athletes get hit by a lot worse things than a plastic cup and some ice all the time. There was no call for Artest to go into the stands. And certainly Detroit is the wrong place to start something like that, especially when security/police prescence was apparently non-existent.
  • What dantsea said. Priceless.
  • I don't think this should be about law suits, albeit most of you already think it is. The Commish has already suspended 3 guys indefinately, and if you saw the video on espn, it looks like you've got some pretty pissed off players taking it out on the fans (who shouldn't have been throwing stuff at the players). Law suits will happen, but I don't think they should. If you're dumb (and drunk) enough to run out onto the floor with your fists up ready to fight Artest, well I have no sympathy for you when we one punches your ass to the hardwood on national tv.
  • This happens in all sports, but it's interesting how the NBA wants to be more and more of a terrordome type of thing. Playing to the scowls, proving toughness by intimidating, blah blah blah. *click*
  • You're right, it shouldn't be about lawsuits. Unfortunately this happened in America, Land of the Lawsuits. Many of our more bizarre laws and corporate policies are the result of some opportunistic fucktard who a) did something stupid and then sued, or b) did something stupid specifically so he/she could sue. asshats, buying a ticket does not entitle you to assault players by throwing bottles at their heads. If you throw hard objects at someone's face, he may choose to kick your arse. I'm surprised they don't have a legalese statement to this effect already printed on tickets.
  • *throws empty milk-carton at bernockle* *cringes like girly-man in the face of bernockle's hockey stick*
  • The fans were jackasses and should have their season tickets revoked and should face assault charges. The players were jackasses, and should face assault charges in addition to suspension. The Pistons should face heavy fines for having inadequate security. The ESPN anchors (and Shannon Sharpe this morning) are jackasses for unconditionally supporting a thug who attacked the wrong fans.
  • Security got in there pretty quickly, though, and it's not usually their job to protect the fans from players. They certainly did better than at the Clemson game. And remember, throwing a cup of beer is not assault. It's dickish, and should be grounds for ejection and losing tickets, but it's not assault. Beating the shit out of someone, especially the WRONG GUY is assault.
  • Throwing beer is disorderly conduct, and can be assault, depending on context. Beating the shit out of the wrong somebody, however, is well beyond assault: is it battery.
  • Throwing beer is also a waste of perfectly good beer, or at least way-too-expensive beer.
  • Yeah... that's how you can tell the guy's a yuppie. He can afford to throw $9 beer.
  • I agree that this shouldn't be about lawsuits, too. But I think it will be. Jerky people feel entitled. When they "pay good money" to buy a ticket, they feel like they can say or do anything they like to the players, whom they have "hired" to "entertain" them. Maybe they watched sports on TV too much, and got used to yelling at the TV with impunity, or maybe they're just racist assholes who use the crowd as a cover to yell things they'd be too scared to yell to someone's face. That said, there's no good excuse for the athletes to go into the crowd. It's instinct to do so -- lord knows I want to go into "hulk smash!" mode when people are mean to me -- but it's not the best possible solution.
  • If one of my employees assaults one of my clients while on the job, I fire that person. In college I was at a game at Niagara University and got pelted with a full cup of beer and some change because I was cheering for the visiting team. The event failed to make it onto ESPN.
  • One night in Berlin, I yelled "Köln! Köln!" the night after a football match had finished, just to piss 'em off. I got a lot of seriously evil looks, and I'm used to the dour disposition of your average German, but luckily the Polizei were nearby. Let it be said that sportsfans around the world take things way too seriously, sometimes.
  • what goetter says.
  • I just found out this weekend that my cousin and cousin-in-law were sitting about a row behind the fight. My cousin was the only person to come forward who actually saw the guy throw the cup that hit Artest.