The Goat

Friday Night, perhaps arguably one of the worst scenes in sports occured. During the winding last minutes of the Detroit Pistons and Indiana Pacers game, Ron Artest fouled Ben Wallace as he went to the hoop. Wallace took exception to the foul and proceeded to deliver a two hand shove to Artest's chest. Wallace continued towards Artest while a referee and Coach Carlisle tried to get inbetween them. Artest was backing away towards the scorer's table, benches cleared. As the referees and Indiana coaching staff were starting to calm things down, an irate Wallace continued to incite the crowd by throwing a towel at Artest. Artest continued to show restraint as he stayed back, laid on the scorer's table waiting for the insanity to cool down, when it happened.

A fan decided to make the scuffle interactive with the crowd as he threw a cup towards the court, hitting Artest directly in the chest. Artest jumped into the crowd immediately towards the vecinity of the throw and brought down a man who seemed all too pleased with what had just happened. The Indiana Pacers followed Artest into the crowd trying to protect their teammate from the crazed crowd. As Artest was being held back, another fan threw liquid towards his face, causing Stephen Jackson to throw a few punches that way. Slowly they were able to pull the Pacers and Pistons back onto the court. As the Detroit Fans continued to show their ugly side, throwing stuff onto the court, towards players, a few got onto the court and confronted Artest, only to get a few punches thrown their way from Artest and O'Neal. As the players got taken to the lockerrooms, the fans continued to throw liquid and food at them. The game was called with 45 seconds remaining, the Pacers winning by double digits.

On Sunday, the punishments from the league were handed out. Artest is suspended for the rest of the season, Stephen Jackson got 30 games, O'Neal got 25, Ben Wallace 6, Anthony Johnson 5, and various others got 1 game. I was speculating the punishments before they were announced with a friend, and I expected to see Artest gone for 25, Jackson 20, O'Neal 15, and Wallace 5. So I was shocked to see these extreme punishment. Even the Comissioner, David Stern, admitted that Artest's previous history was included in deciding the punishment, and I think this was wrong. If you look at his previous altercations, they never involved a fan, and weren't anything incredibly major. Artest is being used as a scapegoat, thus the title of this column. He didn't start the player's scuffle, Wallace did. He didn't incite the crowd, Wallace did. He didn't start the interactions with the fan, that fan did when he threw the cup. Yes, he stepped over the line by going into the stands, but it is not solely his fault and he should not have gotten such rough of a deal.

That's just my opinion.