Artest feels suspension too harsh

[bazooka]

http://sports.excite.com/news/11232004/v7213.html
It should have been longer - The stupid ******.

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - Indiana Pacers forward Ron Artest said Tuesday he wishes he hadn't gotten into a fight with fans but feels his season-ending suspension was too harsh.

You do not attack the fans.

I don't think it was fair - that many games," Artest said in an interview with NBC's "Today" show. "I respect (NBA Commissioner) David Stern's decisions, but I don't think I should have been out for the whole season."

Whatever

Artest, who was suspended for a total of 73 games, stands to lose nearly $5 million this season.

The ****** should have thought about that befor he went into the stands.

Union director Billy Hunter said it would have been appropriate for the NBA to suspend Artest through the All-Star break in February and require anger management counseling.

"I think 35 games would have been appropriate. I think 73 is excessive," Hunter said on "Today."

Uh.....let me think.......NO

[hech54]

Fire 'em all....bunch of overpriced thugs.

[888888]

Fire 'em all....bunch of overpriced thugs.

[northcat_8]

**** Ron Artest

[Krazykevin]

Ban him for life. Let him be an example!!!

[shoozleboy]

Awwwwww... poor baby gonna miss his paycheck???

TOO ******* BAD!!!

Like other NBA players (and pretty much any professional 'athlete'), he's overpaid.... YOU PLAY A SPORT FOR A LIVING!!! BE HAPPY THAT YOU HAVE THAT OPPORTUNITY THAT THE REAL WORLD DOESN'T!!!

He can rot in hell for all I care - his past speaks for itself as well. He chose to lay his overpaid ass on the scorers table and look like a horse's ass, he chose to go into the stands and ATTACK a fan - nobody made him do it. He's supposed to be a professional and act like one.

Most NBA players are overpaid crybaby children. This whole disgraceful incident is just proof positive on that. It's one of many reasons I don't care for basketball past the college level.

He's lucky his ass isn't sitting in a jail cell right now. Any non-athlete does that, and they are in jail. Put him in jail and give him some time to actually feel bad about what he did.

I would have banned his ass for life.

[shoozleboy]

Ban him for life. Let him be an example!!!

you snuck that in there while I was typing my tirade... couldn't agree with you more.... Make him an example for future NBA players... act like this and the NBA will have no part of you.

[adam]

Judging by where this fan's hand is, I'd say Artest already got all the punishment he deserves.

[thayne]

Yeah I vote life too... What an asshat...

[thayne]

adam

Thats a fake. look at the guys arm. If thats real his thumb is on the wrong side of his hand, not to mention its coming right out his butt/thigh...

[bazooka]

Please excuse my out of character cussing.

NC is rubbing off on me.

[stiltman]

Ok, does Artest even have a 5th grade education? I doubt it, least he didn't sound like it. So if he doesn't have the means to communicate with other people, where was his interpreter?

I say ban him from basketball. Wait a couple of years. Then do an exposé on him.

Street thug becomes basketball fighter/player
Basketball fighter/player goes back to roots
X-basketball fighter/player goes to prison for drugs
X-basketball fighter/player reaches out to Denis Rodman for advice

I say screw em all. Over paid street thugs!

Why do they need a players union in the first place!!!!
Unions came about to protect the little guy. Not to protect a useless peice of shit making 10 million a years

[yoda313]

Please excuse my out of character cussing.

NC is rubbing off on me.

Hello,

No problem....

I the damn swear sometimes too

Kevin

(kinda like Star Trek 4 the hell they aren't your whales )

[bazooka]

I believe it was "They are not the hell your whales."



That line still makes me laugh.

[yoda313]

Hello,

Man... I screwed up the "they are not" part

I am shamed......

Kevin


(besides I hated Star Trek 4 anyway - damn green peacers.... )

[bazooka]

Oh......

You did not like when Kirk told the guy a double dumbass on you.

That was probably the second best original cast movie.

The first would be The Wrath of Khan.

[northcat_8]

Please excuse my out of character cussing.

NC is rubbing off on me.

Happy to be an influence

~Back on topic~

**** Ron Artest

[adam]

adam

Thats a fake. look at the guys arm. If thats real his thumb is on the wrong side of his hand, not to mention its coming right out his butt/thigh...

I seriously doubt its fake. It was taken by one of the press at the game and its being hosted on all the major sports websites. The fan's arm is just twisted funny and apparantly the angle makes it look like the hand is coming out of somewhere that it shouldn't.

[mol3000]

AHAHAHHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAH MAN THE HATE ON THIS BOARD IS REALLY ******* SAD AHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA first of all yea it was to strict. Im sick of everybody talking about what he did.... what about da mf that threw shit at him and hit him in the face.
Why is nobody talking about him and what kind of sorry, scary ass drunk ho he was for doing it, hell he needs to get the rest of the season off also. Artest has a right to protect his self!!!!!! i dont know of anybody (well of my friends anyways) that would let anyone hit them in the face and get away with it.... only punks that cant fight or scary bitches would let that happen!!!!! PERIOD !!!!!!

[Heywould3]

Passive aggressive personalities, are mainly the ones who feel that strongly about these type things..

[Heywould3]

on a side note.. our local radio station found that the man that threw the beer was a season ticket holder and he was banned for life from the palace. he also has had 3 DUIs and 1 aggravated assault and a couple other small charges against him..

[zzyzzx]

Artest, who was suspended for a total of 73 games, stands to lose nearly $5 million this season.

[bazooka]

AHAHAHHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAH MAN THE HATE ON THIS BOARD IS REALLY ******* SAD AHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA first of all yea it was to strict. Im sick of everybody talking about what he did.... what about da mf that threw shit at him and hit him in the face.
Why is nobody talking about him and what kind of sorry, scary ass drunk ho he was for doing it, hell he needs to get the rest of the season off also. Artest has a right to protect his self!!!!!! i dont know of anybody (well of my friends anyways) that would let anyone hit them in the face and get away with it.... only punks that cant fight or scary bitches would let that happen!!!!! PERIOD !!!!!!

I do not hate him. What he did was just as wrong as the fan.

But he is whining about his salary, after he disgraced not only himself, his team but also the league by going into the stands. He deserved to be banned for longer. Innocent people were involved in that melee.

He should have thought about his salary when he was laying on the scorers table.

He should have also thought about his salary when he went into the stands.

He is a professional and should act like it.

The only reason you do not hear more about the fans, is what else is there to say. The fans that threw the beer were wrong.

[northcat_8]

Yea...I'm the one who hates him.

But in all fairness, I hated him long before this incident.

[shoozleboy]

AHAHAHHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAH MAN THE HATE ON THIS BOARD IS REALLY ******* SAD AHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA first of all yea it was to strict. Im sick of everybody talking about what he did.... what about da mf that threw shit at him and hit him in the face.
Why is nobody talking about him and what kind of sorry, scary ass drunk ho he was for doing it, hell he needs to get the rest of the season off also. Artest has a right to protect his self!!!!!! i dont know of anybody (well of my friends anyways) that would let anyone hit them in the face and get away with it.... only punks that cant fight or scary bitches would let that happen!!!!! PERIOD !!!!!!

That's the same attitude that got Artest suspended in the first place. There is a reasonable response you can make on a threat to you - and Artest's response was typical of someone who is a spoiled brat - like most NBA, NFL, MLB, and NHL players are. Not all, just most of them.

Even the prosecutors office has said that punching someone is not an acceptable response to having water or beer thrown on you:

Asked if Artest could claim self-defense, Gorcyca (Oakland County Prosecutor) said: "Even if someone did throw water, you don't have a license or a green light to punch them."

Being hit with that cup and they way Artest responded defined his poor attitude - no, sorry, it didn't define it - it CONFIRMED it. He defined his poor attitude and social skills long ago with previous incidents. He should have been the professional that he claims to be and just walked away from it. But no, he was already showing his social graces by laying down on the scorers table to show his displeasure with the flagrant foul called on him moments before.

Too many 'professional' athletes have their heads screwed on wrong - they put themeselves above the game and act like spoiled brat babies, crying anytime they don't get their "Kwan" - (however the hell Cuba Gooding's character spelled that word... )

Artest is a spoiled brat. He should be made an example of and banned from the league. See how much money and how his lifestyle would be when he is sent packing to the Italian Basketball league to make a living.

The whole incident could have been a lot worse had cooler heads not prevailed and got the players off the floor and back to the locker rooms. It was boardering on being like a riot in there. For what? Because Artest wanted to show how big of a 'man' he is? Please...

You're attitude and response to this is typical of the moral decay that "America's Youth" displays nowadays... A piss poor, what have you done for me lately, and you better respect me, attitude....

[shoozleboy]

on a side note.. our local radio station found that the man that threw the beer was a season ticket holder and he was banned for life from the palace. he also has had 3 DUIs and 1 aggravated assault and a couple other small charges against him..

LOL! ESPN.com has an article that the guy was identified by the Oakland County Prosecutor himself - he was a former neighbor of his!!!!! LOL!!

Small world we live in sometimes....

[glockjs]

i think thats the right decision...set an example of what happens.... but i also think something should be done about the fans as well. the guy who threw the cup should be banned for life. so should the guy on the court. it was both sides of it. these fans are getting away with murder these days, something has to be done about it... and ben wallace should be dinged for way more than 6 games

[CaZeek]

I didn't want to get involved with this thread, because everyone on the last thread didn't listen to anything I was saying. They just focused on their one track and tried to spin everything in their favor, but I'll just add a few words, and I'll try to resist the temptation to post anymore.

For those that didn't read my posts on the Pistons-Pacers thread. I believe what Artest did was completely wrong from the point he went into the stands onward. I am not trying to justify anything he did; I'm just trying to put things in their proper context.

I think mol's argument is the reason so many people refuse to look at the other side of things. So please don't group this with his.

For anyone who is saying his actions before going into the stands were reprehensible and that he in a sense "got what was coming to him", I think that's just completely wrong. Everyone know Artest is a loose canon, including Artest himself. That's why he got on the scorers' table. He normally would've lost his cool there, but he was trying to make light of the situation, and basically say "I'm not going to do this again.." Unfortunately, some idiot fan decided to take it a step further and all of Artest's restraint was for naught, as he lost it there.

About the fans vs players being wrong argument- the players were 100% wrong, but at least they were provoked. I think the worst person in this whole mess was big fat guy in the grey suit who just started punching Fred Jones in the back of the head for no reason. Jones was in there trying to hold everyone back and break up the fight, and this idiot just starts punching him. Fans like him are the ones who were throwing chairs and throwing things and people like Rick Carlisle.. that's just absolutely ridiculous.

Lastly, he's not getting paid to have beer and other things thrown at him. His salary should not come in to play there at all. It's like telling some lawyer who's making a million dollars a year that he shouldn't say anything if his boss throws cans of soda at him. I do understand people's argument that he could've acted more maturely and not gotten himself into this mess, but it's $5 million for losing your temper when some random ass throws beer in your face for no reason right after you got shoved right in the chin by Ben Wallace. So from his point of view- he gets attacked by Ben Wallace, he gets attacked by the fans, he reacts (doesn't actually even hit anyone until another fan comes after him on the court), and all the blame is put on him. I say it sucks, but you still have consequences for your actions, so you have to deal with it.

[CaZeek]

PS glock.. I think 6 games is way too harsh for Ben Wallace as it is. I'm basing this solely on precedent. There are many much harder shoves/punches than Ben Wallace's that get 1-2 games max. The only reason he's getting 6 is because of the brawl that started afterwards that he had absolutley no control over.

As far as the rest of the suspensions- I haven't really come to an absolute decision, but I think I agere with them. If I were in David Stern's position, I'd probably have done the same thing.

[bazooka]

I didn't want to get involved with this thread, because everyone on the last thread didn't listen to anything I saying.

You are making a judgement when none is warranted.

What part of both parties were guilty do you not understand?

I have said both parties were wrong to begin with.