It was simply amazing. Commissioner David Stern is laying the brawl of this past weekend on one man: Ron Artest. As I stated earlier, I think Artest is “a few nuggets short of a happy meal” but to lay the blame on him is unwarranted. Artest is paying for this altercation because of his checkered past. Heck, even in a court of law the prosecutor can’t bring in prior convictions as evidence against a defendant; why is it being done here? Here’s the total suspension count:

• Ron Artest, Pacers - rest of the season (equates to 73 games)
• Stephen Jackson, Pacers - 30 games
• Jermaine O’Neal, Pacers - 25 games
• Ben Wallace, Pistons - 6 games (What’s up with that? He instigated the proceedings up until the cup-throwing.)
• Anthony Johnson, Pacers - 5 games
• Elden Campbell, Derrick Coleman, Chauncey Billups, Pistons and Reggie Miller, Pacers - one game each

The problem I have with some of this is that a few years back Vernon Maxwell, an often-troubled but quite talented player, waded in to the crowd and began doing more than Artest. What happened to Vernon? 10 game suspension. There is a precedent here to lower the suspensions. ESPECIALLY those of Jackson and O’Neal as they initially were trying to grab their teammate and get him out of a precarious situation; of course both later got sucker-punched and subsequently retaliated their assailant. Heck, Latrell Sprewell choked his coach and only drew a 68 game suspension! CHOKED HIS COACH? Only 68 games?

Then entire message I get from this? Commissioner David Stern says it’s now OK for fans to throw things at the players; that the players must show more professionalism despite the loathesome fan behavior. Now I can not only go to an NBA game and verbally abuse an NBA athlete, I can throw my drink, my popcorn and whatever I can lay my hands on at him. And I can expect him NOT to retaliate. Maybe I’ll have to pay some fines or such, but so far there have been no charges brought up on fans (even the one who threw the folding chair). You’d think by now they’d have at least ONE person in on charges!

This entire situation is a no-win. The fans lose because now NBA players are viewed as thugs and Mom and Pop America won’t go to the games as much. The players lose because they have a PR nightmare. The front office loses because they over-reacted to the situation. The TV stations lose because fewer people will tune in to watch. I hope the entire thing goes away soon, but it probably won’t.