[Goose]

Since I have either ref'ed or played hoops for almost 40 years now, I can't remember for the life of me ever seeing a basketball referee go into the stands to retaliate, or should I say, "defend his honor".

Why is it that we officials are held to a standard that says walk away at all costs, but yet the players and fans are not.

Ohh, he was only defending himself...or if I got beer thrown on me by a fan, I'd go after that fan. Well I'm here to tell all of you, that I have had water thrown in my face and been pelted by cans thrown by fans as an official and never once went into the stands after them. I would venture a guess that if a ref did that, he would not be working any longer unless it was making Pizza's. There would not be any suspension, fine or any of this pandering, they would be gone for good. But, the athlete is a different breed I guess. They are allowed to get away with murder (pardon the pun....no wait, oops!) and get a suspension only to return to active duty. Talk about a two way street!!

What also was amusing was to hear all the ex-players and even the players union bemoan the fact that the players are always verbally abused by the fans. Oh, really? Why not talk to a few game officials and get their opinion on being verbally abused by the fans and the players! What a bunch of babies!

Basically, I'll side with the others that say at no time is any player justified in going into the stands, unless it is to hug his mother or father.

IMO, Artest is a bad apple and the league has gotten what it deserved for not coming down harder on him and the Pacers over the years. What boggles my mind is that if I owned a business I surely would not put up with his behavior, and neither should the league.

Overall, similar to the NFL, the NBA are hypocrites in the sense that they have embraced all this ganster rap stuff, and put up with a lot of crappy behavior all in the name of ratings. Only now, it is coming back to haunt them. Personally, I'd like to see the NBA just go away. The college game is far and away a better game, and for better or worse, the NBA is merely headed down the same path as the NHL. Does anyone really watch this stuff anymore?

goose