Five-Year Anniversay of ‘The Brawl’

Co sign allenp 100%. I used to work at a place where customers got in my face and became very abusive and my reaction was almost always one warning followed by physically removing the person from my space. If I got poked , pushed, touched or threatened my reaction was much more swift and severe. You do not hit people throw things at people or menace people whether they make 10k or 10 mil a year period. No offense wayno but its people with opinions like yours that enable people to think that they can throw objects at professional athletes without proper repercussions because the athlete should know better because they make money? Everyone can be professional in the face of adversity name calling,racial slurs cursing etc but once it crosses the physical line artest had every right to beat the sh*t out of that guy without remorse and so does everyone else. Now jackson saw his teamate in a crowd of 20k and charged after him and if you’ve seen it as many times as you said you know what happened next, but just in case. Artest got grabbed from behind and the first fan jackson hit threw a full cup of beer in artests face as his arms were pinned behind his back. Where was the wrong doing? If I throw a drink in your face and you don’t swing at me , your buddy probably would. Its just what you do. Is there a better way to respond? Maybe but you can’t say artest or jackson have anymore responsibility than any other man because of their paycheck that’s ridiculous.

Damn! Bryan is right! Jackson DID punch the guy who threw beer at Artest!
I had never noticed that before!
That… that actually changes my opinion of Jackson a lot in this ordeal.

Dude, it’s not about the paycheck, you’re missing the point. It’s about how to conduct yourself as someone with power and influence. I think we can all agree that an NBA star certainly has significant level of influence and power. He wasn’t in dnager, he wasn’t defending himself, he was going apesh!t and trying to pound the dude. Whatever, obviously nobody is going to convince anyone of anything in this argument so y’all can go ahead and beat the sh!t out of eachother all you want.

hah, good call Dacre

Darce what correlation does that have? Playing physical basketball is a lot different than getting a drink thrown in my face. I’m guessing you guys that don’t like to get physical as retaliation for people getting physical with you probably get pushed around a lot.

So you’re at a club and someone on the other side of the bar throws his hunch punch at you you’re just gonna stand there and say wtf really? You’re not gonna at least get in his face? Remind me to never hit the club with you unless I want my ass kicked.

wayno…so, a player is supposed to think about their “influence” when they are physically provoked by a fan? does that make them more culpable?
really dude, you’re trying to change “money” for “influence” to make the same fallible argument.
@ Jukai, it’s not even a maybe. The media has-and uses that power REGULARLY. It’s been the way of the world for decades. That’s the reality that the concept of propaganda is built on. and the only fan that got it bad was the one that threw the drink. And his penalty was like a week in jail and a year of community svc, not to mentioned being banned from NBA games. That still pales to a 76 game suspension for Artest-in addition to the permanent scar on perception to the world. The thing that sux about that is Artest is UNIVERSALLY loved by any player, fan, coach, or reporter that’s ever met the guy.

Wayno: you’re a p&ssy. Sorry man.
Tavoris: the dude got a felony assault charge put on his record. That’s going to hurt him WAY more than Artest missing 76 games. It’s not even close.
And I agree, Artest does get the bum end of every article written about him. Every story I’ve heard about Ron Artest is about how honest he is, how he always listens to you, how he says hi to every fan and loves the attention. He’s generally a great guy. I mean, he went to people’s houses he’s never met and sang Kareoke! Socially, he’s a role model.
However, as you well know, Artest certainly isn’t a saint and he CERTAINLY makes it easy for the media. He has been in many scuffles before and AFTER the brawl in the palace, and has a very short fuse on the court. He tried to attack Pat Riley, he has destroyed a total of two cameras in anger, and been suspended multiple times for ‘conduct detrimental to the team,’ He has been arrested for both spousal and animal abuse. So yeah, the media paints him in a dark light, but uh… you may want to look at his track record.

Magic-his playing days were riddled with far more drinking & partying than most people can comprehend. It was so bad back in the day, that people didn’t know how AC Green survived as a Laker with his morals.

sheed, who is i think top 3 (1.rodman, 2. Kemp) all-time as the most bad-ass guys in the league, never jumped into it and instead he was separating them,

@chintao, u can’t allude to that for a guy that only missed 3 games in his whole 13-year career.

In the heat of the moment, I understand how the players reacted. The right thing was to let security handle it, instead their emotions got the best of them. Now that was the most expensive fight they’ve ever had and the fact that it’s still getting talked about shows how it’s impacted their reputations as well. Both fans and athletes should have to follow some form of ‘rules of conduct’. Fans say all sorts of mean things to and about players – well within the players ability to hear. I’m not one to resort to violence but if some of the things that fans have said to some players – I would have wanted to hit em. When fans throw things at players, that’s clearly crossing the line and more provocative than just name calling. So if an already angry player is within punching range to a fan, and then gets something thrown at them or spit at/on (that happens too) – I completely understand wanting to retaliate. However as a professional, you should be held to a higher standard and refrain. I don’t think these guys did the right thing and I don’t think of them negatively for what they did in the one isolated instance. But other players have endured a lot worse than some name calling and having a drink thrown at them without causing a scene.

cosign NUPE – very well said. They marred thier own reputation by doing this, the media did nothing wrong by reporting it.

Whatever man, you’re the one who thinks that the media is an evil lie spewing machine whos primary goal is to take down the black man…unless they say something that you want to hear anyways. You’re a bit delusional there homie.

No, most of the media is an not an evil-spewing lie machine. But it’s 99% a money-hungry spin machine. Did your mom EVER tell you not to believe EVERYTHING you hear? I bet you think Larry Brown & George Karl are the most honest coaches in the NBA, and that Isiah Thomas didn’t try to kill himself a few months ago just because he said it was his daughter.

chintao…he’s an ordained minister that took his oath seriously. I don’t think there’s anything homo about that.