The Arbitrary ChuckJerry

Anyone who is a big enough basketball fan to be courtside at the Pistons/Pacers game last night should know enough to know this: Don't fuck with Ron Artest.

Before he went into the stands last night, Artest's actions were not even questionable. The foul against Ben Wallace was not a cheap shot. It was unnecessary, but it was not illegitimate. Ben Wallace overreacted and tried to get at Artest. Even then, Artest didn't fly off the handle. He backed away from the fight and even when Wallace continued to come after him he kept relatively cool.

The dumbass fan who threw a full beer at Ron Artest deserves to get beat up. The behavior of some of the fans in Detroit was deplorable, though, even on top of that one dumb guy. The guy who originally threw the beer was not the guy Artest went after, a mistake on Artest's part. The guy in the baseball hat apparently threw the beer and he was the one trying to hold Artest back. Then after he held him back, he started punching him from behind. What a dick.

Then some big black guy comes out of nowhere and starts punching on Freddy Jones, also from behind, who was trying to break up the fight. That guy is a fucking fool too.

The absolute dumbest guys, though, were the two pudgy guys who looked like brothers who actually went on to the court and fronted like they wanted to fight Ron Artest. Artest jacked the one guy in the face and then backed away. Then, the other guy got what he deserved when Jermaine O'Neal ran up and punched the shit out of him.

If you were in a riot, which is what this came down to be, would you further instigate the situation by throwing popcorn and pouring beer and water on the guys who just ran into the stands to beat up someone like you? I wouldn't, but that's what the fans who were standing next to the tunnel did. As they were pulling the Pacers off the floor, the guys right next to the railings dumped whole sodas and bottles of water and beer directly on the players, most notably Jermaine O'Neal, who were within grasping distance. That's just dumb.

Bottom line, everyone who knows anything about basketball knows that Ron Artest has a screw loose and you shouldn't throw shit at him. Artest obviously should not have gone into the stands, but that does not take the blame for this fiasco off the shoulders of the guy who threw shit at him.