As a Michigander, and someone who watched the game, it was a disgrace on both the fans and players part. I understood wallace hitting artest, artest fouled him hard late in the game with the game decided. Artest is a punk and a thug. Then you have steven jackson of the pacers running around trying to start a fight. The fan should never have thrown a cup at artest, but he also shouldn't have bolted into the stands throwing punches, followed by jackson who threw a punch at anyone in his view. Now should the fans have acted the way they did, no, but also what are NBA players thinking running into the stands and throwing punches, you think the fans are just gonna stand there and take it??????? It was an ugly incident, first the fan throwing the beer cup, second the pacers charging the stands, that only escalated the incident.
I can't believe you're being such an apologist for the fans. What about that obese Piston fan who charged down out of the stands and attacked Fred Jones from behind?? Some of your "fans" were throwing their folding chairs at players. One Piston "fan" nailed a ref with a beer bottle and cut his head open--I know it's popular to blame the players---but when fans run onto the court with fists raised--they almost deserve to get beat down.
It's boring to watch morons push balls around. Sorry.