I Don't Want To Talk About Artest...

any more than you do, but I'm swamped today and it's easy material. Grambo has had some excellent coverage of this whole incident direct from Tha D's perspective. It's a good read. The always respectable Bob Cook also weighs in with a view from a Pacer fan.

Last but not least, the mighty Sports Guy breaks down the tape: In a related story, if you scrolled through the lineups of all 30 teams before the season, then asked yourself, "What pair of teammates would be the most likely candidates to start a fight in the stands, eventually leading to the ugliest sequence in NBA history?", the heavy favorites would have been Artest and Jackson in Indiana, with Zach Randolph and Ruben Patterson a distant second in Portland. Those are the facts. That might have been a shocking night, but at no point did anyone who follows the NBA on a regular basis say to themselves, "I can't believe Ron Artest and Stephen Jackson are taking on Row 3 in the Palace right now!" Sketchiest pair of teammates in the league, roughest group of fans in the league. Not a good combo.
He also thankfully calls out the crew of NBA Shootaround for daring to defend the players actions. I know most of the crew is made of up ex players (the rest are just loudmouth dochebags) but you cannot defend what happened here. Sorry. I will not argue this. Yes both sides are to blame but players CANNOT go into the stands and beat up ticket holders. End of story.

TSG also has a follow up column today that will appear in the next ESPN The Magazine: Look, I'm not comfortable with what happened, but I'm a realist. The NBA has been straddling this line for years: crazy players, boozed-up crowds, everyone on top of one another. Throw in a sense of entitlement for some fans -- they take escalating ticket prices and mind-boggling salaries as a free pass to belittle players -- and this was inevitable. If the league truly wants to prevent riots, why does it sell beer after halftime? Why let drunken troublemakers sneak down into premium seats? Why aren't policemen protecting the visitors bench? If they don't change the rules after this, forget $5 lottery tickets; you're better off buying $125 tickets to an NBA game, getting bombed and baiting opposing players into a lawsuit.

TSG makes two excellent points here, both of which I have experienced first hand at the two Wizards games I have thusfar attended this year.
1) The Wiz stop selling beer when halftime ends. This seemed ridiculous to me last week when i was at the arena, but suddenly makes ALOT of sense. When do they stop selling in Detroit?
2) With about 5 minutes left in the 4th quarter, the ushers moved from their posts to their places near the exits to help fans leave the arena. When they did that, I snuck down and sat 4 rows behind the basket for the rest of the 4th and OT. I wonder if that's what happened in Dtown as well.

The fan that threw the beer (Was it even a beer? The cup looked like it had ice in it.) has been identified as John Green of West Bloomfield Township. And guess what? The Detroit Free Press reported late Monday that Green has several criminal convictions, including felony assault with intent to do great bodily harm. Green has three drunken-driving convictions, and Gorcyca said a condition of Green's probation was that he not drink alcohol. Didn't see that one coming, did you?

Shaun Livingston dislocates kneecap. No reason to watch the Clips for a few weeks then.

File this under: No shit sherlock. Thankfully, my health has been pretty good since all of that. *knock wood*

File this under: Woo Hoo!

Johnny Greenwood and Jarvis Cocker set to appear in the next Harry Potter film. I am by no means a huge fan of that series but I have to admit I geeked out a bit when I spotted Ian Brown in the last one.

I'm off tomorrow so updates will be spotty until next Monday. Have a great holiday everyone.