Ron Artest starts brawl - David Stern finishes it
Like my wife, the NBA commissioner is adept at administering a stern message when deemed necessary. On Sunday, November 21 he made himself loud and clear regarding what he is unwilling to tolerate. Vince McMahon need not fear that the NBA will ever compete against his pro wrestling league when it comes to selling violence, artistic or otherwise. Ron Artest may have thrown the first and last punches during the fracas that took place when his Indiana Pacers visited the world champion Detroit Pistons, but David Stern got the final word a couple days later when he suspended Artest for the remainder of the season.
Was Ron Artest justified when he leapt from the scorer's table that he was inexplicably laying upon after some liquid refreshment was thrown on him, charged into the stands, and started to throw punches at a spectator who was in the vicinity of where the beverage came from? Some might think so. Others would even say that he exercised good judgment by placing his physical safety at a premium, opting to attack a fan (the wrong one, as it turns out) that he figured he could easily take rather than going after Detroit's sculptured and afro'd Ben Wallace, the player who had just roughly shoved Artest after being fouled by him. Rather than retaliating against Wallace, Ron Artest decided to take a rest while the other players on the court bumped chests and did their best to appear macho without doing enough to collect personal fouls. Then the beverage went flying and Ron Artest decided to escalate a run-of-the-mill NBA scene into an ugly, dangerous near riot. I say "decided" because even if his initial burst of anger was instinctive and excusable, he certainly had enough time while stumbling towards his intended victim to ponder the possible repercussions. He had ample opportunity to reconsider what he was about to do. He could have simply grabbed the fan by the shirt collar and given him a piece of his mind. So that the punishment might fit the crime, he could have grabbed another fan's drink and done some beverage tossing of his own. He even could have decided to turn around, rather than ruining the promise of his career and the playoff chances of his team in selfish defense of his own ego. But instead he chose to make the transformation from basketball player to street fighter, from
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