November 28, 2004

The Alleged Best Commish In The Business

Given the penalties dished out by the Commish David Stern after the ‘fistfight at the OK Corral,’ (ok, the Palace of Auburn Hills) you would have thought that the Detroit Pistons were innocent bystanders in the debacle.  While Ron Artest was suspended for the season; teammate Stephen Jackson was banished for thirty games and Jermaine O’Neal twenty-five.  With the suspensions handed out by Stern, the Indiana Pacers season is all but over while their bitter rivals, the Detroit Pistons, came out smelling like a rose. 

I don’t know what Stern was watching, but was Ben Wallace an innocent victim in this scrum?  The foul called on Artest against O’Neal was routine.  Players get fouled as hard or harder every game.  Instead of walking to the free throw line to take his shots, O’Neal charged at Artest and shoved him hard with both hands to the face. To his credit, Artest backed off and didn’t retaliate as O’Neal went berserk and tried to get at him.  Artest understood where he stood in the league with his reputation as a thug and a time bomb waiting to go off.  He avoided the altercation and laid down on the scorer’s table while waiting for O’Neal to quit acting like him.

What happened next triggered the entire episode as Artest went ballistic when the cup filled with beer landed on him.  There is no excuse for how he acted other than the fact that everybody knows there is something wrong with the guy.  The Bulls traded him despite his having a promising future because of their fear of what he was likely to do.  A member of the organization who was an acquaintance of mine told me when they traded him and I questioned their reasoning that in the future I would see why they made the move.

He needs help.  When you have a mental condition, the results of your psychosis should be treated and not punished.  He has an anger management problem that he was prescribed pills for but he usually refused or neglected to take.  He should get the help he needs and be supervised to make sure he takes his medicine to prevent further outbursts.  Punishing a sick man without making sure he gets the help he needs was a grave error by David Stern.  If there is a stipulation requiring this and I missed it, I’ll accept my mistake. But there is no mistaking the error of Stern’s ways when he almost totally dismissed Wallace’s role in this mess.

As a player with a reputation the polar opposite of Artest, Wallace should have received a far harsher penalty for his role in the riot.  Had he not reacted the way he did, none of this would have ever happened, and I wouldn’t be the millionth person writing about it.  That’s a 100% fact.  THIS WOULD NOT HAVE HAPPENED HAD WALLACE WALKED TO THE FREE THROW LINE AND TOOK HIS SHOTS. 

While under normal circumstances his reaction would not even warrant the six games he received; these were not normal circumstances.  The penalty should fit the horror of its outcome.  If you drive the getaway car in a robbery and your accomplice shoots and kills somebody, you’re up on charges of murder.  The outcome is what matters and that seems to be what Stern overlook when he gave Wallace a slap on the wrist.  He should be gone for at least twenty games because like I said, without his overreaction, there is no incident.

Indiana’s season is over while the Pistons have a clear path to the Eastern Conference finals. 

This is a league with a lot of players that the fans don’t like or relate to, unless they happen to populate the Auburn Hills Penitentiary where you can’t tell the inmates from the guards.  Without a Jordan or a Bird or Magic, the league is left with marquee players with mug shots like Kobe Bryant, Allen Iverson, and Artest. 

Not only was this an ugly incident:  It was a brutal reminder of an ugly game.