Basketball Brawl
The worst fight in NBA history highlights the combustible mix of rabid spectators and strutting athletes. Is the game itself losing out?
By Bill Saporito
As brawls go, it was hardly the worst that sport has to offer. In five minutes of mayhem that was repeated thousands of times on TV, Indiana Pacers forward Ron Artest was seen leading a fast break into the stands at the Palace in Auburn Hills, Michigan. Artest was charging down a local lout, John Green, who hit him with a full beverage cup after Artest got into an on-court scuffle with the Detroit Pistons' Ben Wallace. Several teammates joined Artest, punching anyone they could reach. The referees ended the November 19 game with 45.9 seconds left, and the Pacers were forced to exit through a shower of popcorn and venom from Detroit fans. Nine fans were hurt, none seriously.
The riot in Detroit also set off a second battle across the country, as everyone from sports-radio yakkers to families gathered for Thanksgiving dinner tried to assign blame for the rise of incivility in spectator sports—the athletes or the fans?
NBA commissioner David Stern was outraged by his players. He suspended Artest for the rest of the season, costing him some $5.5 million in lost wages. The NBA Players Association has appealed Artest's suspension as unreasonable. Authorities are reviewing game and security tapes to determine what charges may be filed against Pacers and fans, although it's not likely that anything beyond a misdemeanor will result. Lawyers for injured fans are already putting on the full-court press.
But Stern wants the fight to set off a national debate about what he calls the "social contract" between fans and players, which seems to have been voided. "Over the years, at all sporting events, there's developed a combination of things," says Stern. "First, the professional heckler, who feels empowered to spend the entire game directing his attention to disturbing the other team at any decibel level, at any vocabulary. Then, an ongoing permissiveness that runs the gamut from college kids who don't wear shirts and paint their faces and think that liberates them to say anything, to NBA fans who use language that is not suitable to family occasions."
Professor Ken Shropshire thinks change in the way fans relate to their teams is fueled by everything from TV coverage to video games. "With the realistic, violent sports video games and the pervasiveness of sports on television, there's closeness, and fans feel they're actually part of this thing now," he says. "From a marketing aspect, all the major sports convey that fans are right in the middle. So they feel they should be part of the game."
In some respects, the fans are just taking a cue from the players. Beating the opposition isn't good enough; in-your-face humiliation is preferable. Profane language among players on the court got so pervasive that the NBA had to make it a violation. In football, the nfl has started calling penalties against players for taunting and excessively celebrating after touchdowns. Still, it's players like Philadelphia receiver Terrell Owens—who trampled the Dallas Cowboys logo after a touchdown this fall—who get most of the attention. Their antics, after all, are replayed and reinforced on ESPN and sports talk shows. —from TIME, December 6, 2004
Questions
1. How did the NBA respond to the Nov. 19 brawl?
2. What do you see as the main cause or causes of violent behavior among sports fans? Explain.