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The NBA has to do something to protect the players from the fans. It is the only professional sport where the fans can actually sit at the same level as the players. Although they are highly overpaid and spoiled rotten they still have the right to feel safe from the idiots in the stands.
This incident is no different than the father and son at the Chicago White Sox game the jumped onto the field after the Kansas City first base coach. The two of them served jail time.
If you were in the same situation as Artest, how would you have reacted to that situation. Say you are at your job and some moron threw a drink at you. I know I would have reacted the same way.
On the other hand, he should have realized that he is a professional athelete and a role model whether he wants to be or not. Kids look up to him. I think the suspension handed down by David Stern was fair and just given the situation. Artest was suspended for the remainder of the season and will lose a little over 5 million in lost pay due to the suspension.
Artest has already given himself a bad name in the league with his short fuse. That is the reason fans don't like him and son't respect him. However, If a New York Knick fan had thrown a drink at Micheal Jordan during the Bulls era, and he had reacted the same way Artest did, I have to ask myself would we have said they should have banned Jordan from the league. Or would we have put the blame where it belongs, on the idiot who threw the stuff and the player in the first place?
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