How do you feel about the suspensions?

[Evenstar]

i agree with the artest suspension, but i think he should have been forced to take anger managment classes during the ENTIRE suspension.

jackson and o'neal got off too easy IMO. neither were provoked like artest was. jackson was just CRAZY. he went balistic after artest was first shoved by wallace, and had to follow artest into the stands and start punching random people for NO reason. JO was seen on camera clocking that fan for NO reason ( artest had a reason, that guy on the court wanted to fight him, so he was defending himself in THAT scenario) and JO was also seen clocking another guy off camera by a cop. he also tried to go into the stands, luckily he was restrained.

i also think the fans need to be punished. the pistons should definelty be forced to play at least one home game with NO fans. all those idiots throwing cups, drinks, and especially those MORONS who went on the court, those people NEED to be punished, and since they were probably the season ticket holders doing all that crap, that will start to punish them. maybe even make them play a playoff game with no fans in it.

 

[Rookie]

Too harsh..

That 36 games by Gargamel sounds more fair and logical. Artest was stupid to go after the fan but to me the fan who threw the drink on Artest is the initiator. Artest does however need anger management.

 

[kingskings!]

Too harsh..

That 36 games by Gargamel sounds more fair and logical. Artest was stupid to go after the fan but to me the fan who threw the drink on Artest is the initiator. Artest does however need anger management.

Ah, for a first offense...yes. But I believe Ron-Ron is on the third strike fast track now.

Doesn't make me happy, doesn't make me want to hurt him, and it doesn't make me disrespect his basketball skills. What he did was totally inexcusable (not dismissing Pistons fans culpibility, was that Ben Wallace's brother who got in the punches from the rear?) but nothing the league has done so far has gotten Artest's attention for long enough.

He needs to control himself enough to leave the aggression on the court (and he needs to be in control there too, nobody wants to see another Kermit Washington/Rudy T. incident).

Who lies on the scorers table in the midst of a fight? Why wasn't he out of the area and on his own bench? If he'd gone to the bench, he would have been out of reach of that fan, or at least been (hopefully) controllable by his own team/coaches. The one suspension that I really hate was that of Reggie Miller, from everything I saw on TV which admittedly is not everything, all Reggie did was try to hold Artest back, but he did leave the bench (as every player except Tayshaun Prince was reported to have done from both teams).

The first person article posted in another thread gave a couple of good explanations of things I hadn't thought about in the midst of the brawl. And one I had thought of...to me, it appeared Artest WAS taunting while lying on the table and was ready at any moment to rejoin the fight on-court. But, where were those fans seated at courtside supposed to go when the fights broke out (I really HATE those seats so close for player safety reasons)...I suppose that may have been where the older person who was trampled came from, but also some of the fans who got swung on probably came from those same seats (not all innocent, by the way, and not all guilty either..at least in my opinion). Don't forget, we didn't see everything on TV, and there were reports that JO swung on another fan which wasn't recorded. How 'bout Tinsley not getting suspended at all...THAT was on TV, he attempted to come back out onto the court waving a dustpan or something and couldn't play Saturday because he injured his hand Friday...how did that happen?

Let's not paint all Pistons fans with the same brush. Every team has bad fans but thankfully they are in the minority. Every team plays the Pistons at least twice each season and I'm fairly certain the same fans attend the games of each visiting club. If this is entirely the fault of the Pistons fans, why don't we see 41 riots per year when the Pistons playat home?

 

[4cwebb]

I agree with those who think the Artest suspension is too harsh...sure, Artest shouldn't have gone into the stands, but 36 games or so probably would have been a better suspension to fit the crime.

As for Stephen Jackson, I don't know that 30 games is warranted. His actions, while they occurred in the stands, were in defense of his teammate. The first guy he swung at and punched in the neck had just thrown something into Artest's face while Artest was being restrained.

J O'Neal's suspension is too much as well, imho. I've got absolutely zero sympathy for any of those fans that wandered out onto the court and received a beating in return. I don't care if you have floor seats...don't step on the floor to challenge a professional athlete's manhood when their blood is high. Does it excuse Artest for clocking that guy, or for Jermaine taking a running start from halfcourt to blind-side the dude on his knees? Probably not, but if the NBA is going to say that there is a boundary that the players cannot cross into (i.e., the stands), then the line should work for fans as well. Don't step foot on the court, and if you do, be prepared to get your a** kicked in a fight by men who are bigger and stronger than you.

 

[TheSerbianQueen]

I think that Stern did pretty good with the suspensions. Obviously, Pacers are going to suffer BIG time..... But if nothing serious was done this time there was a good chance of players not taking this too seriously. I know some people feel that Ron should not have been suspended the whole season, and so-and-so got too many games, etc.... But I think that Stern did it because NBA just had to make an example of this. And it was probably a very good move.

 

[slugking50]

Too lenient. Artests is right on the money. S Jacksons and J Oneal are too Lenient. What they did was horrible. There is NO excuse for it....


S Jackson should have 50 and J Oneal should have had 40.

 

[iheartBrad]

i don't know what to think abut Ron's but i think everyone else's was fair

the Reggie Miller one we could of lived without...(and i hate Reggie)....but at the same time im not losing any sleep over it

 

[RoyalDiva]

I agree with others who say the fans should be punished as well. I hope they don't get just a slap on the wrist. If these fans aren't punished, then fans elsewhere are going to think they have free reign to attack players, throw stuff at them as well, since Detroit got away with it. And where might it end up-with a fan seriously injuring a player by throwing something dangerous??

And I'm sure those idiot Detroit fans are already calling up every personal injury lawyer in town, trying to get millions out of this.

 

[Superman]

Too tough. Inconsistent. No apparent rationale to them.

1) Maxwell got 10 games for running into the stands and punching a fan. Let's start off with 10 games for Artest for that infraction, even tho he didn't punch the guy. Artest goes back on floor and throws two punches at another fan. Let's give 10 games for each of those infractions. That puts him at 30. Let's tack on another 6 games for not leaving the court in a timely manner (basically what B. Wallace got). That's 36 games -- still not even half of the 73 games he'll miss. Btw, yes, 73 games doesn't have a real world halfway point, but you get the point...

Ron Artest got the rest of the season because he's been a long-time knucklehead, and there's no defense for why he should be allowed to play again this season.

By the way, Ron Artest was suspended twice last season, and five times the year before.