Rut, you must be joking. The players will never slaughter their cash cow. I want to see how many pro games Artest plays if he sues the NBA for "allowing" the fans to engage him in a deleterious way. This will go away and money will be paid to the fans to keep this from getting any bigger than it is. Big business will take over and all this will merely be a 3 day blip unless criminal charges are brought against the players. Teams will disengage from those players while court is in session. Kobe taught the owners how to handle that. PR spin and personal agents will earn their money and smooth everything over. Heck, look at Artest's 11 minute interview on MSN. He looks contrite and accepting. You won't see much argument coming from him. He knows (now) that he screwed up. By the way, the link to Artest's interview has been bumped down by a mother who cut her own daughter's arms off.
Bottom line is that some players forgot what they were supposed to be doing out there and got caught up in themselves. In this litigious day and age, money will exchange hands and we'll move on to the poor girl now with no arms.

Artest is going to lose $4 million dollars because of what is basically what started with the behavior of the fans. It is also clear the Artest is really not that interested in playing basketball and might want to sue to get damages to recover what he will lose.


You seem to want to make this about Artest. There were other players at this game. There is the NBAPA that is out there going to fight this issue. There are some labor issues that will come more to the surface over time. There is talk about a lockout and issues based on the CBA.

Money will exchange hands. It might be in ways you are not aware of. Of course there are fans that can sue, but so can players. The Pistons might have to worry about this coming from all sides.

Peace

I'm not necessarily disagreeing, but how exactly do you know this? Have you been a member or employee of the Players Association? I'm not being a smart-guy, I'm genuinely curious if you have some insight into this or whether this is just your own perception.

NBA is history
 

No Artest is going to lose his millions because he made a horrible choice. As ESPN has now clarified, he even went after the wrong fan which shows that he had no idea who actually threw something.

I would not doubt it that fan sues him for any money he might make with his CD?

And now this morning he goes on NBC and tries to blame it on Wallace and that he undersands because Ben had lost a family member, and then tries to say well I lost a family member also. Say what?

Ron should just hush and take the line Flip Wilson said best, "the devil made me do it."

Continuing on its current course, I see the NBA following suit with hockey down the road or turning into a European league. That's where the best basketball is played these days it seems.

Thanks
David

Most employee contracts have exceptions for violent or criminal behavior that gives the employer the right to cancel the contract without renumeration.

Camron, I don't know why you would even mention this. If they cancelled his contract he could go overseas and play less games for any money he has lost (probably tax free) and then come back next year and someone will pay him. It might be sad but he will not be treated like Kermit Washington.

Re: Moved from the other thread.
 

JR, I seemed to have offended you in some way. For that I apologize.

My previous analogy about the work place, in my opinion, was appropriate. What I was attempting to express is that there seems to be a double standard. If you or I did the same thing we would be punished more severly. We see it all the time. I can't remember her name or the olympic sport she was playing in(I believe it was synchronized swimming) but an athlete for this past summer olympics was found guilty of vehicle homicide and was allowed to defer her punishment until after the olympics. If it was you or I we would be serving our time right after sentencing. I couldn't get a delay due to a project I was working on. All I want is for athletes to be held to the same standard as you or I. I don't mind the amount of money they make. That's the capitalist system at work. They are being paid what the market supports. I just want them to be accountable just like you or I.

Maybe this analogy will be more to your liking. Sprewell got suspended for a year for choking his coach (P.J. Carlisimo). It then got bumped down to 68 games. I think what Artest did deserved as stiff a penalty.

Forgive me if you've answered this already in one of the numberous posts on this topic, but do you disagree with the
length of Artest's suspension? If so, what do you think would be fair?

And I agree with you that the fan crossed the line and should be punished. Did you see him on Fox News last night? He seemed somewhat smug. In my opinion he's guilty of assault. Not for throwing the beer. I can't see that as an assault. But the punches he threw to the back of Artest's head while Artest was being held, was cowardly.

Respectfully,
Randall

[Edited by rwest on Nov 24th, 2004 at 07:47 AM]

Althought I wish I was a former member, I have no first hand experience. Just my opinion, you never really hear much unless one of their idiots has done something and the league is initiating a punishment. Then they step in because it will affect their revenue. Again, JMO

I disagree
 

I think Artest will be just like Washington and Maxwell and others who have crossed the lines never to be the same force again.

I think the problem Artest will have is the total lack of respect from his peers. The NBA is an elite club, but they like to keep it a private club. Lots and lots of things go on that we the fans will never know. Artest broke the unwritten code and exposed the players for who they really are - just normal people (with lots of money).

But as Kobe crossed the line and lost respect of his coach and teammates, I think Artest will face the same challenge.

Charles Barkeley was a good player, (maybe even a great player) but he was never able to outlive his image as a trouble maker. Don't you know that he is really squirming with all of the video this week of him spitting on fans, and cursing fans. (Charles had been able to put that behind him the last few years as an analyst - but now he is again being exposed - NBA players don't like that since they have such a sheltered life)

That's my take, thanks
David

Dunk tank clown.
Geek at carnival in Shoot the Geek paintball game.

Nice metaphor, Jim.
:)
mick

Re: Re: Moved from the other thread.
 

You have not offended me. It takes a lot to offend me. If that took place, I would tell you. Trust me on that one. ;)

Double standard? Our job has nothing to do with the job or a professional athlete. These athletes are in the entertainment field ultimately. They do not work in the same environment. We do not have thousands of people watching us and have a radio and TV shows dedicated to your stats of our daily work. They are not the same thing at all.


I think you need to look around the community. There are people all the time that do not serve sentences until a certain time or a specific situation is over. The Olympics were about 2 weeks. Hire you a good lawyer and you might be in the same situation. I have known students (not athletes) get sentenced and the judge allowed their term to get over before they served their sentence. So I am not sure where you live and what your experiences are, but I have seen the average Joe in certain situations have to wait before they serve a sentence.

My opinion is completely irrelevant to this discussion that we have been having. I do not care what his suspension was really. I am not talking to say Artest should not have been suspended. I knew the man was going to get suspended and I suspected that what he got was going to be the case. My question is what the prosecutor is going to do to the fans that did things outside of the law. David Stern has a right to control the conduct of the players in the league. I also think he needs to protect those players as well.

I do not care what his attitude is on an interview. The man reacted to someone throwing something at him. I would expect or be surprised in anyone did not react in a similar situation. He also said he has had things thrown at him before. I would expect anyone to behave that way regardless of their upbringing and culture. Many people can come here and tell me that they would do nothing, but I have been in enough bars when I was in college and saw people react to confrontation with physical violence. They were all colors and seem to have different backgrounds. And I have seen people have things like a beer thrown in their direction and I did not see anyone walking away. I do not give a damn what his profession is or what circumstances of why someone threw something in from the stands at him. I just was not surprised by his behavior and this will happen again if the authorities do not take action.

Peace

David B, I disagree with you. For one, I don't think Artest has lost the respect of his peers. Although it has caused some problems don't think that some of the other players aren't glad that some of those fans took a beat down. Kermit Washington also sucker punched Rudy T, at least to some people. I don't think he will be treated the same.

my point exactly
 

That was my thinking exactly. If that's the attitude of the NBA players and I think it is for some of them, then the league is in deep trouble.

The slogan its Fan nnnnn tastic was so popular because that was the belief of the players in the 80's and 90's

As with our other sports, basketball has become all about money. Forget who pays the bills.

Alright..I have been reading and watching all this stuff and it is time for some honesty here. Now, Artest should not have gone into the stands, that is a given, and he deserves whatever punishment the NBA deems fit, but lets look at some things here.

I wish everyone would stop talking about how Artest was hitting people in the stands. WATCH THE TAPE. When Artest runs into the crowd and gets to the wrong guy he never gets a punch off. He tries to grab the guy, the guy falls down and Artest is grabbed before he can get a punch off. The FIRST punch that Artest throws comes after he starts getting punched in the back of the head by the idiot who actually threw the cup.

If anyone deserves a season ban it is Jackson who just went up there swinging at anything that moved.

Where was the security? If they were doing their job, the cup thrower would have been grabbed before Artest could even get off the scorers table.

I was watching the game on ESPN as it happened, twice during the telecast the announcers mentioned that the Pacers were very unhappy about what was going on with the fans behind their bench. Pacer officials complained the the Palace officials about it, and they did nothing. So don't go on about how they should have let security handle the fans. They tried that earlier and the Palace did nothing about it. I may not be an security guru, but you would think that in an NBA game, a good place to have some security would be at the players bench areas, especially after they were having problems with it all game.