America at Large/George Kimball: Larry Brown called it "the ugliest thing I've ever seen as a coach or a player", and to put that observation in its proper perspective one must remember Larry Brown was the head coach of that dreadful basketball team the United States sent to last summer's Athens Olympics.
If you own a television set you've doubtless already been over-exposed to last Friday night's Riot in Auburn Hills. The sight of an out-of-control Ron Artest leading a posse of Indiana Pacers into the stands to pummel unruly Detroit Pistons fans got more coverage on US newscasts last weekend than the war in Iraq, and while NBA commissioner David Stern moved swiftly in meting out punishment, the causes and effects of what happened at the Palace last Friday night will linger.
Stern suspended nine players for a total of 140 games. Artest, the principal instigator, was relieved of his duties for the balance of the season, while team-mates Stephen Jackson (30 games) and Jermaine O'Neal (25 games) also received stiff sentences.
And remember, that's just the league's response. Criminal charges could be pending in Oakland County, Michigan, and lawsuits will most assuredly follow. Meanwhile, Stern finds himself uncomfortably squirming over several other realities bubbling beneath the surface of what happened on the Pistons' home court last week.
The nine players involved in the fracas were all African-Americans. Their victims, and as far as we can determine from television footage, nearly all of the civilians involved in the multiple altercations, were white. Given the ever-widening gulf of resentment between the NBA's players and its fan base, this makes for a most uncomfortable situation. Stern's response thus reflects less a moral imperative than an economic one.
That Artest was at the epicentre of the unpleasantness was hardly a surprise. The volatile Indiana forward is no stranger to trouble: he has been suspended seven times, and just a week earlier had disgraced himself by asking coach Rick Carlisle for a few weeks off - in the midst of the season - so that he could travel around on a promotional tour for his just-released rap album.
Artest might be a loose cannon, but he is also an extremely talented basketball player. His performance last Friday night had been the principal reason the Pacers were beating the bejeezus out of the defending NBA champions 97-82 on the Pistons' own home court when all hell broke loose.
With 45.9 seconds left Artest committed what under the circumstances might be deemed an over-enthusiastic foul on Ben Wallace. The burly Pistons' centre, one of the strongest men in the league, responded to the offence with a two-handed shove directed toward Artest's face, touching off a mini-scrum on the court.
Game officials attempted to separate the combatants, which did not, by this time, include Artest. Having touched off the battle, the would-be rapper retreated to the courtside scorer's table, where he appeared to be enjoying a nap when a fan expressed his displeasure, firing a full cup of beer from the stands. Awakened from his slumber, Artest, who moments earlier had wanted no part of Wallace, charged up an aisle into the seats and started throwing punches at a spectator. Videotape evidence confirms in addition to his other transgressions, Artest was hitting the wrong guy. While he rained blows on an innocent party, John Green, the fellow who had thrown the beer at him, is standing a few feet away.
Jackson and O'Neal raced to Artest's aid, but just about the time they arrived a folding chair came flying through the air and landed on the pile of bodies. Miraculously, no one was seriously injured.
Green, incidentally, was readily identified by Oakland County prosecutor David Gorcyca, who in reviewing the videotape of the melee immediately recognised his former next-door neighbour. The beer-tosser had his season tickets revoked and has since been barred from the Palace, but he has in the meantime become almost as famous as Ron Artest. He was a guest on ABC's Good Morning America programme Tuesday morning, and that evening appeared on Larry King's CNN show.
Once the marauders had been coaxed from the stands, another pudgy fan wandered onto the court to confront them. Although this fellow, who at this point remains nameless, got the worst of it, his chances of recovering damages in court are essentially zero. A large body of legal precedent suggests that a spectator stupid enough to place himself on the field of play is essentially fair game. This poor schlub, in any case, got decked twice by serially-thrown overhand rights - one by Artest and another from O'Neal, and he would have gone down a third time had Jackson not slipped on the beer-strewn floor and missed with his right hand.
The officials declared the game over. While overmatched security forces tried to hustle the players off the court, the crowd pelted them with everything they could find: Beer. Popcorn. Water bottles. Chairs.
The erosion of the NBA's fan base that has been evident in the post-Jordan era may merely reflect America's growing disenchantment with sports superstars in general. Fans increasingly perceive players as over-indulged millionaires, and the chasm is exacerbated in the case of basketball, where the players are predominantly black and the audience predominantly white.
Even the coverage has mirrored that gulf. In replaying footage of the riot at the Palace, ESPN's John Saunders, himself an African-American, appeared to defend Artest and co when he labelled Pistons fans "a bunch of punks".
"The resentment is deeply rooted and hard-wired, and it has to do with money, race, and class," said Dr Harry Edwards, the University of California sociology professor who now serves as a consultant to Bay Area sports teams. "They look at these highly visible young black men and they see them as spoiled, rich, athletically talented gangsters." "The racial subtext is clear," Edwards told USA Today a few days ago. "Race played an aggravating role in this, whether consciously or not."
Meanwhile, we can all look forward to December 25th what promises to be the most-watched sporting contest in the nation. Peace on Earth, good will to men. In a bizarre twist of fate, the Pistons-Pacers rematch is on the books for Christmas Day in Indianapolis. What are they going to throw there? Turkey legs?
