I don't agree with Ailene Voisin about Webber or Adelman, but I certainly agree with her comments about this:
http://www.sacbee.com/content/sports/basketball/kings/story/14094548p-14924487c.html
Ailene Voisin: Man's help not always woman's best friend
By Ailene Voisin -- Bee Columnist
Published 2:15 am PST Friday, January 20, 2006
First of all, this isn't Ron Artest. Soft-spoken and engaging, Antonio Davis long has enjoyed a reputation as one of the NBA's classiest, most thoughtful players. He is also among the game's hardest workers - the bootstraps, blue-collar, lunch-bucket kind of guy - and the type of leader whose soothing, powerfully subtle presence enables him to control a situation without raising his voice. Certainly without leaping over the press table and calmly proceeding into the stands to defend his wife, who, it could turn out, might not even be the person who was seeking assistance.
So the first inclination is to send the Knicks' Antonio to bed without supper.
Suspend him for five games. Fine him a few million. Remind him about that mortal sin - thou shalt not enter the stands under any circumstances - and then let him resume whatever is left of his NBA career, which, to be honest, isn't very much. At 37, term limits are shrinking his tenure as president of the players' union and a valuable reserve who is best known for his muscular contributions with the Indiana Pacers.
Unfortunately, though, there are problems with this kinder, gentler approach. The circumstances of Wednesday's player-in-the-stands incident at United Center are murkier than the convergence point of the American and Sacramento rivers, with Kendra Davis and fan Michael Axelrod continuing to swap verbal punches. He said she attacked him. She - via her husband's account - said he accosted her. He threatens to sue her (Kendra) for battery and her husband (Antonio) for slander. So, surely she is going to countersue, right?
And while this is all being sorted out, while David Stern continues studying the videotapes and police reports, a nagging, underlying subtext - the one that really precipitated this whole mess - escapes much-deserved scrutiny.
In other words, where is it written that women require rescuing, anyway?
Work with me here for a minute. This is 2006.
The distressed damsel perished generations ago.
The characterization of women as weak, sobbing females who dissolve into tears at the first whiff of danger or confrontation, becoming convulsed into spasms of helplessness and hopelessness, should have been rejected by now with all the ferocity of one of Yolanda Griffith's blocked shots. Physical intimidation shouldn't be the only response to conflict resolution. Remember how Billie Jean King outwitted Bobby Riggs? What about Demi Moore? Does she look like someone who needs a man to lift her military gear? Who couldn't maintain her composure when confronting heated, potentially hostile situations? What about all the women currently serving in Iraq?
Please, repeat after me: Women are not wimps. Women are not victims. Women are eminently capable of protecting themselves and their children and, in situations similar to what allegedly transpired Wednesday, doing so without flexing a muscle.
Besides, Antonio Davis isn't the only adult who wears pants in his family. Regarded as one of the league's most outspoken and involved wives, Kendra Davis is a powerful influence in her own right and surely experienced enough in the ways of the common fan to react with common sense.
Tired of being slobbered on by some inebriated fan? The language becoming a little too blue for the kids?
Summon security. Contact a team official. Leave the building.
Turn the other cheek, then turn the offender in to the police.
No, regardless of who was the aggressor late Wednesday - Kendra Davis or Michael Axelrod - Antonio Davis should have remained in the huddle. The Oakland native can maintain that he was behaving honorably, that anyone else would have reacted accordingly, and he can argue a good case; he elicits a modicum of empathy from almost everyone. But along with reinforcing the stereotype that players' spouses are desperately wealthy housewives in need of physical protection even in a most controlled environment, his foray into the seats could have triggered a disastrous result in provoking another Detroit-Indiana debacle.
The Pacers still are a mess, Ron Artest a Pacer in paycheck only. The repercussions for Davis and his family, and the family of Mr. What's-His-Name Axelrod, figure to stretch into the next decade if the legal process follows form. (Gotta keep those attorneys employed.)
As for the women in his life? The women in this world?
The men need to get a grip.
We can defend ourselves.
About the writer: Reach Ailene Voisin at (916) 321-1208 or avoisin@sacbee.com.
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