The Sandspur

Issue date: 12/3/04 Section: Sports

There is no excuse for what happened at the Palace of Auburn Hills, when basketball turned into basketbrawl. I'm outraged by those who want to shift the blame off of Artest, choosing instead to blame the fan who threw his beverage on the Indiana Big Man. Granted, the fan should not have been throwing anything on the court, but Artest should have been in a bigger man (not only in size) and just walked away.

Artest could've shouted at the guy, sure, but he had no business leaping into the stands and assaulting the fans. The worse of all was that he went after the wrong guy! Can you imagine that? Put yourself in shoes of John Ackerman a 67 year old who was attacked by Artest. Picture a 6-7, 247 pound man of pure muscle leaping after you and swinging his gigantic arms at you. If any of those punches make direct hit you're dead.

Now I hate to sound like a monday morning quaterback but, this was a long time coming. Sports is suppose to be entertainment, in embodies values and the spirit of competition which we see in everyday life. More and more sports has started to emulate the bad values of our society, like greed and promiscuity. The NBA more than other leagues has become increasingly about the bling bling and less about winning. Take players like Allen Iverson who seems to care about his endorsements than about his team. What makes matters worse is that NBA has profited from this "thug" image and they love it.

If a player gets arrested and it sells more jerseys the leagues does not care. Latrell Sprewell is a perfect example, the man attacked his coach and nearly choked him to death, the league suspended him for the season. Sprewell then came back and is now making millions as if nothing happened. It is not too late for the league to take back control of its players. If they ban Artest from the game forever players will think twice about acting out. Artest committed the most grievous of all sports sins, attacking a fan. With the fans these players would be nothing. It is only because people are willing to pay tons of money that these players make a living.

Banning Artest from the NBA would protect fans from future attacks and would make it safer to go to games. If players want to fight with each other, go ahead, but don't bite the hand that feeds you. The fans make the game and if players hurt them, then they shouldn't play.

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