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Remorseful O'Neal Defends NBA, Players
By Michael Cunningham
STAFF WRITER
January 16, 2005
INDIANAPOLIS · If not for a favorable ruling by a federal judge, Indiana Pacers forward Jermaine O'Neal probably would have watched his team's game against Phoenix on Friday night on television.
It would have been the final game of a 25-game suspension for O'Neal's role in the brawl between Pacers players and Detroit Pistons fans Nov. 19. A judge upheld an arbitrator's ruling that NBA Commissioner David Stern's punishment of O'Neal was too harsh, and O'Neal returned Dec. 25 after missing just 15 games.
O'Neal said after Indiana's 101-83 victory that the significance of Friday's game didn't occur to him.
"When I got cleared, that calendar went out the window," O'Neal said.
Instead, O'Neal's mind is busy with other thoughts about the fight and the public reaction to it. O'Neal said he wonders why the predominantly black NBA is judged more harshly than other sports. Why, he asked, did a fight between players and fans lead to a conversation about the state of the league and the temperament of its players?
When a Major League Baseball player threw a chair at a heckling fan or an NHL player was sent to prison for plotting to kill his agent, O'Neal said the reaction was more subdued and the criticism was limited to the individuals.
"These are people that are not black," O'Neal said. "That cuts me a little bit because it is totally unfair for this league to be damaged by what happened [in Detroit]."
O'Neal, 26, said he doesn't understand why there is talk about an age limit for NBA rookies when athletes in baseball, hockey and golf, among other sports, routinely turn professional as teenagers with no public fuss. He wonders why critics say high school players are hurting the league when some of them are among the best and most popular players.
"I don't know what it is, but as a black athlete that came out of high school, I feel like it is because we are black," O'Neal said.
O'Neal said he feels that because of what happened in Detroit, he has been portrayed as a thug when nothing in his history suggests he is violent.
"I am not a killer," said O'Neal, a three-time All-Star. "I am not a beastly guy. It was just a bad situation that happened. Everybody goes through situations where you say, `Man, I wish that hadn't happened.'
"But does that make you a bad person?"
For about 20 minutes Friday night, O'Neal, thoughtful and seemingly earnest, contemplated such questions and their possible answers to a handful of reporters. He said he accepts that he and his teammates deserved punishment for the fight. It started when Pacers forward Ron Artest, reacting to being hit in the face by a fan's drink, rushed the stands and ignited a brawl that eventually spilled onto the playing floor.
O'Neal did not rush the stands, but punched a man who was among a handful of fans that came onto the court. Artest's suspension was for 73 games, Stephen Jackson got 30 and Anthony Johnson got five.
O'Neal's suspension was the only one of the four overturned on appeal by arbitrator Roger Kaplan. In his report, Kaplan said of O'Neal: "He is the recipient of a couple of awards attesting to his character, community involvement and citizenship. His one punch of a spectator, while excessive, was clearly out of character."
The league appealed to a federal judge, arguing that its collective bargaining agreement with players gives Stern discretion to hand out such suspensions. The judge upheld Kaplan's decision.
"I think that made me breathe a little bit easier," O'Neal said of Kaplan citing his character. "`He is a good guy in a bad situation.' That is really what it was."
Teammates Jamaal Tinsley and Fred Jones said O'Neal cares deeply about what the public thinks of him. Jones said there have been times he has been out with O'Neal and the two ended up being late somewhere because O'Neal made time to talk to fans.
O'Neal said he has always taken his position as a role model seriously, both because his 5-year-old daughter, Asjia, and "millions of other kids and fans" look up to him. But the idea of O'Neal as a nice guy and good citizen is in contrast to what TV cameras showed from Nov. 19.
The video of O'Neal lunging at the fan and throwing a vicious punch to his face was one of several shocking scenes that was replayed for days and dissected by newspaper columnists and television analysts. Too many of them, O'Neal said, used the incident to condemn the league's players.
"What has to do with me, I am willing to deal with all of that," he said, "but it is hard to accept people trying to [criticize] my peers and my league."
He said all baseball players didn't suffer when Rangers pitcher Frank Francisco threw a chair that hit a woman in the stands in 2004. Nor was there much worrying about the state of the NHL last month when player Mike Danton was sentenced to prison for conspiring to have his agent murdered.
Several times O'Neal said he wasn't making excuses for his role in the fight. But he said he is troubled by how the media covered it.
He said eventually all the furor will pass.
"When I walk away from the game and if I continue to live my life the way I have lived it, nobody will never remember this," O'Neal said.
He said this not long after he said it "kills" him to be associated with what is considered the worst player-fan brawl in U.S. sports history, so how does he expect to escape its stigma?
"Obviously, it is going to be difficult," he said. "But I can't see 15, 16 years from now, [people saying], `You are the guy that got in the fight in Detroit.' They are not going to say that.
"They are going to say, `Jermaine O'Neal is a great guy and also a good basketball player.'"
Michael Cunningham can be reached at mcunningham@sun-sentinel.com.
Copyright © 2005, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Remorseful O'Neal Defends NBA, Players
By Michael Cunningham
STAFF WRITER
January 16, 2005
INDIANAPOLIS · If not for a favorable ruling by a federal judge, Indiana Pacers forward Jermaine O'Neal probably would have watched his team's game against Phoenix on Friday night on television.
It would have been the final game of a 25-game suspension for O'Neal's role in the brawl between Pacers players and Detroit Pistons fans Nov. 19. A judge upheld an arbitrator's ruling that NBA Commissioner David Stern's punishment of O'Neal was too harsh, and O'Neal returned Dec. 25 after missing just 15 games.
O'Neal said after Indiana's 101-83 victory that the significance of Friday's game didn't occur to him.
"When I got cleared, that calendar went out the window," O'Neal said.
Instead, O'Neal's mind is busy with other thoughts about the fight and the public reaction to it. O'Neal said he wonders why the predominantly black NBA is judged more harshly than other sports. Why, he asked, did a fight between players and fans lead to a conversation about the state of the league and the temperament of its players?
When a Major League Baseball player threw a chair at a heckling fan or an NHL player was sent to prison for plotting to kill his agent, O'Neal said the reaction was more subdued and the criticism was limited to the individuals.
"These are people that are not black," O'Neal said. "That cuts me a little bit because it is totally unfair for this league to be damaged by what happened [in Detroit]."
O'Neal, 26, said he doesn't understand why there is talk about an age limit for NBA rookies when athletes in baseball, hockey and golf, among other sports, routinely turn professional as teenagers with no public fuss. He wonders why critics say high school players are hurting the league when some of them are among the best and most popular players.
"I don't know what it is, but as a black athlete that came out of high school, I feel like it is because we are black," O'Neal said.
O'Neal said he feels that because of what happened in Detroit, he has been portrayed as a thug when nothing in his history suggests he is violent.
"I am not a killer," said O'Neal, a three-time All-Star. "I am not a beastly guy. It was just a bad situation that happened. Everybody goes through situations where you say, `Man, I wish that hadn't happened.'
"But does that make you a bad person?"
For about 20 minutes Friday night, O'Neal, thoughtful and seemingly earnest, contemplated such questions and their possible answers to a handful of reporters. He said he accepts that he and his teammates deserved punishment for the fight. It started when Pacers forward Ron Artest, reacting to being hit in the face by a fan's drink, rushed the stands and ignited a brawl that eventually spilled onto the playing floor.
O'Neal did not rush the stands, but punched a man who was among a handful of fans that came onto the court. Artest's suspension was for 73 games, Stephen Jackson got 30 and Anthony Johnson got five.
O'Neal's suspension was the only one of the four overturned on appeal by arbitrator Roger Kaplan. In his report, Kaplan said of O'Neal: "He is the recipient of a couple of awards attesting to his character, community involvement and citizenship. His one punch of a spectator, while excessive, was clearly out of character."
The league appealed to a federal judge, arguing that its collective bargaining agreement with players gives Stern discretion to hand out such suspensions. The judge upheld Kaplan's decision.
"I think that made me breathe a little bit easier," O'Neal said of Kaplan citing his character. "`He is a good guy in a bad situation.' That is really what it was."
Teammates Jamaal Tinsley and Fred Jones said O'Neal cares deeply about what the public thinks of him. Jones said there have been times he has been out with O'Neal and the two ended up being late somewhere because O'Neal made time to talk to fans.
O'Neal said he has always taken his position as a role model seriously, both because his 5-year-old daughter, Asjia, and "millions of other kids and fans" look up to him. But the idea of O'Neal as a nice guy and good citizen is in contrast to what TV cameras showed from Nov. 19.
The video of O'Neal lunging at the fan and throwing a vicious punch to his face was one of several shocking scenes that was replayed for days and dissected by newspaper columnists and television analysts. Too many of them, O'Neal said, used the incident to condemn the league's players.
"What has to do with me, I am willing to deal with all of that," he said, "but it is hard to accept people trying to [criticize] my peers and my league."
He said all baseball players didn't suffer when Rangers pitcher Frank Francisco threw a chair that hit a woman in the stands in 2004. Nor was there much worrying about the state of the NHL last month when player Mike Danton was sentenced to prison for conspiring to have his agent murdered.
Several times O'Neal said he wasn't making excuses for his role in the fight. But he said he is troubled by how the media covered it.
He said eventually all the furor will pass.
"When I walk away from the game and if I continue to live my life the way I have lived it, nobody will never remember this," O'Neal said.
He said this not long after he said it "kills" him to be associated with what is considered the worst player-fan brawl in U.S. sports history, so how does he expect to escape its stigma?
"Obviously, it is going to be difficult," he said. "But I can't see 15, 16 years from now, [people saying], `You are the guy that got in the fight in Detroit.' They are not going to say that.
"They are going to say, `Jermaine O'Neal is a great guy and also a good basketball player.'"
Michael Cunningham can be reached at mcunningham@sun-sentinel.com.
Copyright © 2005, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
