Violence and Basketball

A couple of things on the Pacers-Pistons debacle on Friday.

1. This is one of 2 huge reasons that I stopped watching the NBA several years ago. I hate this gangster shit that dominates basketball. Why do I want to watch this? The other reason is that the games are so boring when compared to the 80s. For that I blame Chuck Daly and Pat Riley, but that's another rant.

2. All this talk of "Oh, what are we going to do about these interactions between players and fans" is hypocritical bullshit. The answer is easy--ban alcohol from sporting events. You do that, these confrontations probably decline by 90%. So long as alcohol is sold at sporting events, this will continue. Tell the professional sports league to get out from under the tit of the alcohol cow and we can get back to civilized sporting events.

3. Artest (and certainly Jackson) was wrong, but he was hit in the head with a cup of beer. Those fans should be prosecuted, and not get some suspended sentence bullshit like what happened to those lunatic White Sox fans who attacked Royals 1st base coach Tom Gamboa a couple of years ago, left the poor guy with hearing loss in one ear (as if coaching the Royals wasn't pain enough) and got off with nothing. Totally unacceptable. Jail time for obnoxious fans is another key to stopping this shit.

If it sounds like I blame the fans for this, you're right. Artest is a punk and his suspension is justified, as is Jackson's. But they didn't start it either. The players have been rightfully punished for their part. Now it's time for the fans to be punished too.

UPDATE: In a related story, both Clemson and South Carolina have announced they will refuse any bowl bids after their brawl this weekend at the end of their game. Glad to see administrators crack down, even if they probably only came to this decision as a result of the NBA.