Basketbrawl
Sports November 21st, 2004 |I’m not much of a sports fan — the only sport I’ve ever really gotten into is soccer, thanks to my brother’s many years of goalkeeping — but even I am likely to sit up and take notice when reports start hitting the ‘net of pro basketball players jumping into the stands and beating the fans (RealMedia stream here).
Just insane. Bad enough that they got into a brawl on the court — it’s never a good thing, but it happens occasionally — but then to jump into the stands and attack people in the crowd? “He’s absolutely out of his mind!” says one of the commentators, soon followed by, “This is the ugliest scene you’ll ever see.” Sounds about right to me.
Of course, then the commentators just get kind of stupid as they scramble to find something to say, when one of them comes up with, “This is not a pretty sight, but it happens, a very emotional game,” as the players are bodily hauled off the court under a hail of beer cups, food, and at least one chair. Emotional game or not, something this big doesn’t “happen”.
According to ABC, four players have been suspended indefinitely, with more precise suspension lengths to be announced later.
On the upside, maybe we’ll get an update to the old one-liner, “I went to a fight and a hockey basketball game broke out.”
“Mrs. Robinson (from The Graduate)” by Simon and Garfunkel from the album Movie Music: The Definitive Performances (1968, 4:03).
[See also: Expressiveness | 32 cents | Pledge of Allegiance | The sound of silence | Lord of the Rings dating tips ]
5 Responses to “Basketbrawl”
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alh
Michael Hanscom
Ryan Waddell
Michelle
Curt
November 21st, 2004 at 8:14 am
I only pay attention to basketball when it makes it makes the front page instead of the sports section.
I ran out of time last Friday to blog but one thing I need to ctach up on was the NBA commissioner’s visit to Seattle about 10 days ago. He’s starting up the “You Need a New Arena” dance. Key Arena is now 10 years old and thus obsolete.
This should make for interesting local politics next year. Certainly it’ll be a welcome break between the 23rd and 24th recounts in the governor’s race.
November 21st, 2004 at 11:40 am
It’s not that I don’t think it’s a bad thing a player got into the crowd and started beating one of the spectators, but you take it out of context: Artest only went into the crowd after being nailed with a plastic beer bottle. He did not go up there unprovoked, looking for a fight and he did not go up there and try to kick the crap out of any random person. I’m not endorsing violence, but you make it sound like he went into the crowd fists flying at random.
November 21st, 2004 at 12:13 pm
From what I’ve read and seen, it was a plastic cup, not a bottle (minor difference, but hey) — and provoked or not, I see no excuse for a player to jump into the stands and start beating on someone. That’s incredibly unprofessional.
Also, according to the reports, he more or less was attacking people at random. I read a couple reports quoting one person he hit as saying that Artest was yelling, “Did you throw it? Did you?” as he was hitting the guy. He knew the general direction the cup came from, but not the actual assailant, and so just started flailing around.
In any case, provoked or not — and I hardly see that getting splashed with beer or soda is cause for a beatdown — it’s terribly unprofessional, and shouldn’t have happened.
November 22nd, 2004 at 5:05 am
What I find more interesting (actually more disturbing) is the lack of discussion of fans behaviour nowadays in sporting events. Why is it ok for the fans to shout abuse and generally misbehaving, and in this case being disruptive by throwing objects into the court? Why is it ok for a few golf fans to shout racial abuse at Tiger Woods? I am sure none of the fans involved will get punished, or if they do the punishments won’t be at the same level as the players involved. If these type of sport fans behaviour is left unchecked, it may escalate into the football violence like in England in the 80’s and 90’s. Do we need someone being actually physically hurt (stabbed, shot, whatever) before accepting that this type of behaviour is unacceptable?
November 22nd, 2004 at 12:30 pm
Alright That’s Enough
OK America I’m cutting you off, you’ve had enough. You’ve collectively been acting like a belligerent drunk for the last couple days and it’s time somebody put you in your place. First was the now infamous brawl between the Indiana Pacers and Detro…