{"id":419,"date":"2004-11-20T08:16:35","date_gmt":"2004-11-20T12:16:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tradermike.net\/movethecrowd\/2004\/11\/pacers_pistons_game_turns_into_an_ugly_fight_with_fans\/"},"modified":"2004-11-20T08:16:35","modified_gmt":"2004-11-20T12:16:35","slug":"pacers_pistons_game_turns_into_an_ugly_fight_with_fans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.michaelseneadza.com\/blog\/2004\/11\/20\/pacers_pistons_game_turns_into_an_ugly_fight_with_fans\/","title":{"rendered":"Pacers \/ Pistons Game Turns into an Ugly Fight with Fans"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>(<a href=\"http:\/\/www.clickondetroit.com\/sports\/3935695\/detail.html\">Here&#8217;s the video of the fight<\/a>)<br \/>\nOr maybe I should have said &#8220;I went to an NBA game and the Vibe Awards broke out&#8221;.  In case you haven&#8217;t heard \/ seen it by now &#8211; &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/sports.espn.go.com\/nba\/columns\/story?columnist=ratto_ray&amp;id=1927360\">Fight breaks out between fans &amp; players at NBA game<\/a>&#8220;.  WTF is going on?  The NBA can&#8217;t get those international players into the league fast enough.  More to come after I return from my bike ride&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Update:<\/strong>  Ok, I&#8217;m back to finish my thoughts on this&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>First off, I don&#8217;t even want to get into who&#8217;s to blame for what went down.  I&#8217;ve heard arguments on both sides and each has valid points.  I will say that I&#8217;d bet that the fan who threw the cup at Artest would have never done that if he was on the street with Artest, or anywhere else besides the &#8220;safe&#8221; confines of the stands.  He would have guaranteed himself an ass whipping.  Anyway, I&#8217;m more interested in the impact on the NBA and the implications on the players.  Here&#8217;s how I see it:<\/p>\n<p>We already know that <a href=\"http:\/\/tradermike.net\/movethecrowd\/archives\/2004\/06\/larry_bird_nba_a_black_mans_game.php\" title=\"NBA a Black man's game\">Larry Bird said what a lot of people won&#8217;t &#8212; people would like to see more white players \/ stars in the NBA<\/a>.  The process of bringing in international players has been well underway for years now.  A big attraction to the foreign players is that they&#8217;re more &#8216;coachable&#8217; (eg. controllable).  The Artest incident can only exacerbate that phenomenon.  <\/p>\n<p>I know some people think that race doesn&#8217;t play a part in all of this but I think they&#8217;re fooling themselves.  I was glad to hear Jason Whitlock and John Saunders bring up the issue of race on the &#8216;Sports Reporters&#8217; this morning.  Like they, and the other, white, panelists said, it&#8217;s the pink elephant in the room.  I totally agree with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mercurynews.com\/mld\/mercurynews\/sports\/10235494.htm?1c\">what Whitlock says about the NBA having a credibility problem<\/a>.  And the players aren&#8217;t helping the situation much.  Just a few recent examples:<\/p>\n<p><UL><LI>Latrell Sprewell complaining about a $10,000,000 offer, to which he said that he couldn&#8217;t feed his family on that kind of money.  Ha!<\/LI><\/p>\n<p><LI>Ron Artest showing just how unstable he is by asking for a month off from playing basketball so that he could promote his upcoming CD.<\/LI><\/p>\n<p><LI>Various clowns getting arrested on drug or weapons charges.<\/LI><\/p>\n<p><LI>Kobe Bryant&#8217;s rape case.  Let&#8217;s not forget that a white woman was involved.<\/LI><br \/>\n<\/UL><\/p>\n<p>It seems clear to me that many players have attitude problems and\/or don&#8217;t appreciate the incredible amounts of money they make.  Well, there are plenty of poor foreigners just itching to take their salaries.  We saw a good example of that on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mtv.com\/onair\/dyn\/battlegrounds_king_of_the_world\/series.jhtml\">Battlegrounds: King of the World<\/a> this season.  That brother from France was much hungrier than the American players and it showed as he crushed them.  Bruhs had better get their minds right and step their games up.<\/p>\n<p>And while I&#8217;m on the subjects of sports, race and general ignorance, this Terrell Owens\/Nicollette Sheridan\/Desperate Housewives story is just ridiculous.  I can see the point of parents who were concerned about their kids seeing such a provocative scene when they were expecting to just see some football.  But what really gets me is how, if that scene was so shocking, all of the news and talk shows play the spot over and over again at all hours of the day.  If it was so bad should they be airing it?  Should the FCC fine all the other shows which have rebroadcast it?  What a joke this whole thing is.  And of course the same pink elephant (race) is in the room.  But let&#8217;s not even go there&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(Here&#8217;s the video of the fight) Or maybe I should have said &#8220;I went to an NBA game and the Vibe Awards broke out&#8221;. In case you haven&#8217;t heard \/ seen it by now &#8211; &#8220;Fight breaks out between fans &amp; players at NBA game&#8220;. WTF is going on? The NBA can&#8217;t get those international&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.michaelseneadza.com\/blog\/2004\/11\/20\/pacers_pistons_game_turns_into_an_ugly_fight_with_fans\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Pacers \/ Pistons Game Turns into an Ugly Fight with Fans<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":22,"url":"http:\/\/www.michaelseneadza.com\/blog\/2003\/06\/25\/rise_of_international_basketball_talent\/","url_meta":{"origin":419,"position":0},"title":"Rise of International Basketball Talent","date":"June 25, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"This is sort of a follow-up to my earlier basketball post about the foreign invasion of basketball players. REAL Sports With Bryant Gumbel had an excellent report on international basketball this week. (The show will be rebroadcast a few more times if you missed it.) Here's a synopsis of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Race&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":339,"url":"http:\/\/www.michaelseneadza.com\/blog\/2004\/06\/09\/larry_bird_nba_a_black_mans_game\/","url_meta":{"origin":419,"position":1},"title":"Larry Bird: NBA &#8220;a Black man&#8217;s game&#8221;","date":"June 9, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"I just saw a clip from an ESPN show, Two on Two, airing tomorrow night. The funniest part was when Larry Bird said that he'd get upset if a team sent a white player to guard him. He took that as a sign of disrespect. :-) This article sums it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Race&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":254,"url":"http:\/\/www.michaelseneadza.com\/blog\/2003\/12\/11\/rasheed_wallace_say_the_nba_is_exploiting_uh_brothas_\/","url_meta":{"origin":419,"position":2},"title":"Rasheed Wallace Say the NBA is Exploiting, uh, Brothas :-)","date":"December 11, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"Rasheed Wallace had some strong words about the NBA in a recent interview: But there is no ambivalence, no question about how he feels, in the strong language he uses to criticize the NBA and how it treats black players. In a league where all but one team owner and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Sports&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":248,"url":"http:\/\/www.michaelseneadza.com\/blog\/2003\/11\/24\/alonzo_mourning_to_retire\/","url_meta":{"origin":419,"position":3},"title":"Alonzo Mourning to Retire","date":"November 24, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"From ESPN: EAST RUTHERFORD, New Jersey -- Alonzo Mourning's NBA career is over. The seven-time All-Star center will soon need a kidney transplant and will no longer be able to play professional basketball, New Jersey Nets president and general manager Rod Thorn announced on Monday morning. \"It is with great\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Sports&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16,"url":"http:\/\/www.michaelseneadza.com\/blog\/2003\/06\/25\/why_is_that\/","url_meta":{"origin":419,"position":4},"title":"Why is That?","date":"June 25, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"The article 'No Outrage Over Foreign Invasion', raises the issue of why there is such protest over black teenagers going into the NBA draft, but no protests over the European teens going pro. The same question could be asked about why nobody cares when white tennis players, golfers, or baseball\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Race&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":72,"url":"http:\/\/www.michaelseneadza.com\/blog\/2003\/07\/11\/spurs_get_spurned\/","url_meta":{"origin":419,"position":5},"title":"Spurs Get Spurned","date":"July 11, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"Lots of moves made today in the NBA. It appears that both Jason Kidd and Alonzo Mourning will sign with the Nets. Word seems to be that they like their odds of consistently making it to the NBA Finals if they stay in the Eastern Conference. Jermaine O'Neal joined Jason\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Sports&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelseneadza.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelseneadza.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelseneadza.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelseneadza.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelseneadza.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelseneadza.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelseneadza.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelseneadza.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelseneadza.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}