I watched the game on the Piston's channel, rather than ESPN.
Ben Wallace should get a short suspension for shoving Artest after the hard foul to the back of his head. He also deserves criticsm and discipline for throwing a towel at Artest while the latter was lying on the scorers table mocking him.
But Artest jumped into the stands and started beating up a guy who had nothing to do with the thrown beer cup. Artest ran right past the real perp, and whaled on the WRONG GUY. Jackson went into the stands with Artest and also was throwing a bunch of punches.
When they got back to the floor, Artest and O'Neil threw punches at other "fans" who were on the sidelines. They had no business being on the floor, but neither did they deserve to be sucker punched. Artest and O'Neil will never be able to make the case that these latter guys were direct and immediate threats to them that would have justified a punch.
The fans in the stands reacted with ugly outrage after seeing the punchouts of others by these players and dumped ther beer, soda, and popcorn on the players as they went into the locker room tunnel under the stands. An awful scene. I hope video evidence gives the cops plenty of faces to prosecute.
The ESPN shootaround group after the game was full of idiotic logic, arguing that the players were justified in defending themselves when they went after "fans". The law allows you to defend, not retaliate. If you get doused by beer, you do not have the right to go beat up another guy who you mistakenly think might have been involved in the beer toss. You are supposed to call the security and have him arrested and press charges, etc.
I expect there will be several arrests of "fans" on various charges, and rightly so.
When Commissioner Stern's office finishes analyzing the tape, Artest, O'Neil, and Jackson will be given longer suspensions than Wallace. And I expect some of the three punch-throwers will also face criminal charges.
leftcoaster,
I watched several different videos... I am not an Indiana fan, I am a philadelphia one.
First, no video shows exactly what set Artest off right before he charged the stands. Reports says a lot of things were being thrown.
Second, Artest did not "whale" on the guy in the stands... He ran up there and grabbed his shirt and yelled at him asking if he threw whatever it was that was thrown at him.
He did NOT beat up the guy. Watch the video again. The guy falls down while his shirt was being grabbed. The guy himself claims Artest was asking him this. Meanwhile a friend of his threw another beer at Artest and another Indiana player hit that guy.
Arguably Artest had no business being in the stands and deserves to be suspended for many games, but the fans were outrageous and the ones that were on the floor had no business being there and were antagonistic.
I have little sympathy for any "fan" who goes onto the court like that.
All fans involved should be prosecuted. There is no excuse for any of their behavior.
If I were getting paid what the players of the NBA are getting paid, I would let the fans throw all the beer and soda at me that they wanted to. The players have no right sucker punching any of the fans period. If the name calling and beer chunking becomes too much for the players to handle, then leave the floor. Striking someone in the mouth with your fist is a criminal offense.