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November 21, 2004

Fans crossed the line

By now I'm sure everyone's heard about the ugly melee between the Detroit Pistons and the Indiana Pacers. Very ugly indeed. But, I think former NBA star and Yahoo! Sports' NBA analyst Steve Kerr gets to the heart of the matter with this commentary.

Until the cup was thrown, it was business as usual in Auburn Hills.

An intense, physical basketball game; a hard foul by Ron Artest – in retaliation for a hard Ben Wallace foul a minute earlier; an angry response from Wallace; a pushing match, followed by the usual grabbing, holding and yelling as coaches and officials attempted to gain control of the situation. NBA fans have witnessed scenes like this a thousand times before.

It should have stopped there, and it would have – if a stupid fan hadn't thrown a cup at Artest, hitting him in the face.

It will, IMHO, be a travesty of justice if the very stiff suspensions, fines, and loss of pay which the players involved are expected to receive, and rightly so, if the fans who escalated the conflict aren't also held accountable. Steve Kerr makes that case in no uncertain terms. And he's absolutely right.

But what really caught my attention was one member of the Pistons who by all accounts played perhaps the premier role of attempted peacemaker - Rasheed Wallace of the Detroit Pistons.

'Sheed Wallace played here in Portland for several years before being traded to Detroit. And while here he became infamous as the badboy of the NBA. He consistently lead the league in technical fouls and I think for ejections too. Refs and fans alike, not to mention sports writers, pegged Wallace as a trouble causer with a very short fuse.

So why didn't Wallace rise to the bait and let loose if, as he was consistently described, he has an anger problem? Perhaps the truth is that he was simply a passionate player who wasn't able to mask his frustration well enough. Whatever the case, I was very pleased to learn how maturely and responsibly Wallace behaved during this entire ugly incident. He deserves some belated apologies from sports writers who took obvious glee in dissing him while he was a Trailblazer. Rather than portray him as the iconic embodiment of what's wrong with professional sports, they could demonstrate their own maturity by hailing his clearly "above and beyond the call of duty" role in the Pacers/Pistons incident.

Posted by Kevin at November 21, 2004 10:58 AM