Four National Basketball Association players were suspended indefinitely yesterday following one of the ugliest brawls between professional athletes and fans in this country, a melee that NBA Commissioner David Stern described as "shocking, repulsive and inexcusable."
The fight was the latest and most violent in a recent string of incidents in which the formerly respected barrier between players and fans has been breached across professional sports.
Indiana's Ron Artest returns to the court after charging into the stands and fighting with fans Friday night in Detroit.
(AP)
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"I've never seen anything like this," said former NBA player Greg Anthony, now an ESPN commentator. "Player on player, yes. But fans going onto the court, going at it with players?
"I don't know, I think the culture of sport is really changing. You started to see it transpire in Europe with the soccer matches. There's so much hate and venom being tossed in society nowadays that sports is not immune to it."
Ron Artest, Stephen Jackson and Jermaine O'Neal, all starters for the Indiana Pacers, exchanged blows with fans -- both in the stands and on the court -- during Friday night's incident at the Palace of Auburn Hills in a Detroit suburb. The fourth player suspended, Ben Wallace of the defending NBA champion Pistons, set events in motion when he shoved Artest with less than a minute left in the game. Artest later stormed into the stands after being struck in the face by a drink thrown by a fan.
"The events at last night's game were shocking, repulsive and inexcusable -- a humiliation for everyone associated with the NBA," Stern said in a prepared statement. "This demonstrates why our players must not enter the stands whatever the provocation or poisonous behavior of people attending the games."
The length of the players' suspensions will be determined when the NBA wraps up its investigation, possibly tonight. Both players and fans could face criminal charges as well. Auburn Hills police said yesterday they had identified most of the people involved using video footage but that the investigation could take weeks.
"Obviously, we know which Indiana players were in the stands, but it looked like there were a lot of fisticuffs being thrown other places, too," Oakland County Prosecutor David Gorcyca told the Associated Press yesterday. "The whole fiasco could take weeks to decide."
At least five people were treated for minor cuts and bruises at POH Medical Center in Pontiac, hospital spokesman Chris Allman said yesterday. All were released in good condition.
In other recent incidents, Texas Rangers relief pitcher Frank Francisco threw a chair into the stands during a major league baseball game in September, breaking a woman's nose, after he and others in the bullpen were heckled by Oakland Athletics fans. Also that month, Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Milton Bradley threw a plastic beer bottle at the feet of fans whom he thought had thrown the bottle at him. With his team in a tight pennant race, Bradley was suspended for the final five games of the season.
In 2002, a father and son jumped from the stands at Chicago's Comiskey Park and attacked Kansas City Royals first base coach Tom Gamboa. A year earlier, Tie Domi of the National Hockey League's Toronto Maple Leafs wrestled with a fan in the penalty box after dousing him with water.
In 1995, Vernon Maxwell of the NBA's Houston Rockets attacked a spectator in Portland, Ore. He was suspended 10 games and fined $20,000.
The violence has trickled down to the high school level. A cheerleader suffered a broken rib and a coach needed stitches in his head after a melee broke out in Metropolis, Ill., last February. Two people were injured after hundreds of fans stormed the court following a boys' basketball game last January in Columbus, Ohio, where police used pepper spray to subdue the crowd.
Detroit garnered national headlines in 1984 when riots broke out after the Tigers won the World Series. But the city's reputation for unruly fans had faded, and its celebration last June of the Pistons' championship was peaceful.
