Just about everyone in the sports world knows about what happened Friday night between the Pacers and Pistons. For those of you who don't there was a brawl that broke out between fans and players. Artest and Stephen Jackson went a little beyond the scope of sanity; but does this warrant a 5 foot nothing fat out of shape chump without a stitch of athletic experience to judge the most athletic entertainers in the world. David Stern has no idea what it is like being pushed to your limits by media and drunken fans day in a day out. Stern doesn't have the credentials to judge these men as peers. It is dusturbing that the NBA (most likely featuring the best athletes in the world) has a chump governing it. In terms of economics, David Stern is most concerned about dollar signs. He wants fans to generate revenue by following the NBA and participating as much in the game as possible. In this case the fans were behaving like monkeys. Throwing beer and other drinks on men who are playing a game with high end emotion is unbelievable. Drunken fans talk trash about wives, family members, and ridicule the most intimate aspects of one’s life. Often times these fans are overheard by those very players immediate friends and family who went to support and enjoy the loved athlete. When heckling ones most intimate emotions is combined with physical abuse, you have one heck of a problem. The David Sterns knows nothing of physical competition or the emotions that come with pushing oneself to the brink of mental and physical stress. Many argue that Artest is a psychotic along with Stephen Jackson, and Jermain O'neil. Columnist Bill Simmons blames Artest for “going after the wrong guy” Simmons says “It wasn’t that guy but the guy behind him who threw the cup of beer”. When you temporarily lose sanity do to the abuse of 20,000 it is hard to tell one apart from the other. Although only say 30 people were guilty of throwing things, most everyone is guilty of defemation of ones character.
3 comments:
I hope that most of the fans that are suing get laughed out of court. Artest is a punk, but I guarantee that any other athelete in his position would have lost control as well.
It is easy for many people to side with the players on this issue. After all the fans initiated the actions that ultimately made for one of the most horrific nights in the history of professional sports. But, what about the players that are making millions of dollars that basically comes out of the fans' pockets? Shouldn't they have a little bit more control over their emotions after all they are around this sort of behavior night after night when they are on the road? I think the problem is due to the fact the NBA has a lot of thugs in it. Players come into the league and aren't mentally prepared for the type of atmosphere that an NBA arena holds. The league is also very much responsible as well, for not training their security and players what to do in this sort of situation. David Stern did what he had to do. He couldn't have just slapped Artest's hand in this situation. It was too big and too bad.
-2 for multiple spelling errors in Stevenpadilla2's post.
-1 for two spelling errors in Jake's comment.
I live under a rock - would you believe I have yet to see video of this?
Stern is walking a fine line. This is best viewed in terms of the strategic behavior discussed in Chapter 10. He has to be credible in ensuring that this doesn't happen again (or at the least, very soon). One way to establish credibility is with excessive punishments.
One other thought here - part of the reason for high ticket prices is to self-insure against problems. And one explanation of high player salaries is efficiency wages - paying them more than they are worth in exchange for harsher penalties for transgressions.
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