With the recent happenings in the NBA, it makes me kinda glad the Vancouver no longer has the Grizzlies. Of all major pro sports, basketball athletes have to be the most arrogant (ya I'm generalizing and stereotyping; but in order for it to be a stereotype, it must have happened a few times). Although I do not agree with the retaliation tactics of Ron Artest (and any athlete that gets into an altercation with the fans), I need to play devils advocate and say that if you are stupid enough to throw beer at a player then you have crossed that invisible line. Paying for a ticket allows you to do quite a bit; but throwing something....anything... is idiotic, uncalled for, and can result in some nasty reprocutions. Oh but wait....they are going to sue the player(s) and make BIG money out of it even though they were the ones that started it. It all begins to make sense. Ya just gotta love the legal system.
Athlete VS the Fan
- Thread starter no3
- Start date
i think it is just endemic to sports in general that fans are sick of the antics of millionaire-cry-baby players ...
the average person does not make a fraction of what the players make, and are taxed to death and then asked to pay ridiculous amounts of after-work-after-tax dollars for some dickhead to act like the guys in the NBA do on a regular basis?
no one cares anymore about doing a good job ... showing up, being supportive, making some kind of effort -- nope, its all about how much they get paid.
and its not just athletes ... got tons of business people, government workers, doctors who just care about the bucks.
have you seen the program about Terry Bradshaw and the shit he took from fans while he was in Pittsburg? even after he won them, what, four superbowls, they still treated him like crap ... but he showed up and tried again and again to win for that team and for the fans.
the players these days don't even try anymore.
they deserve the shit they get.
and don't get me started on lawyers ... oh vey!!!
the average person does not make a fraction of what the players make, and are taxed to death and then asked to pay ridiculous amounts of after-work-after-tax dollars for some dickhead to act like the guys in the NBA do on a regular basis?
no one cares anymore about doing a good job ... showing up, being supportive, making some kind of effort -- nope, its all about how much they get paid.
and its not just athletes ... got tons of business people, government workers, doctors who just care about the bucks.
have you seen the program about Terry Bradshaw and the shit he took from fans while he was in Pittsburg? even after he won them, what, four superbowls, they still treated him like crap ... but he showed up and tried again and again to win for that team and for the fans.
the players these days don't even try anymore.
they deserve the shit they get.
and don't get me started on lawyers ... oh vey!!!
I hear ya Lonely...I just think that the fans feel that by paying the price of admission, it gives them the opportunity to physically harm someone by throwing an object at them. If I bought a coffee at Starbucks and didn't like the moccha made or the service provided, I can't just throw it right back in their face without having any physical or legal recourse on my ass. It just seems so perverse in sports that the fan gets money after inciting action. If the fans don't like the money made by athletes....DON"T BUY THE TICKET, thereby supporting said athlete and team. Support smaller local teams where the heart is with the sport ie. WHL, CFL, Minor League Baseball. I'll end this rant by saying, don't begrudge the athlete beacause that is what the marketplace is paying them (see your lawyer comment).
But if I threw the coffee at the counter person, chances are they would call the cops, and maybe the employees would try to restrain me and hold me until the police got there. Or they might just describe me to the police and hope for some surveilance tapes.
They likely wouldnt fly over the counter swinging punches.
They likely wouldnt fly over the counter swinging punches.
no3 said:
dirk_dog said:
If I was the employee you threw the coffee at, you better believe I would be coming over that counter. And if I was that employee's manager, I'd try my damndest not to fire 'em for going over that counter. And if I was the cop who attended the scene, I would do my damndest to see that no charges were laid against that employee. However, I'm not any of those people, so I can't really say. Now, the biggest problem with the Starbucks analogy is that if it happened in Starbucks, it wouldn't kick off a riot, like it did in the basketball arena.
It's one thing to use reasonable force to restrain someone while waiting for the cops. It's quite another to engage in vigilante/mob justice & dispense retaliation.
It's not mob justice...it is retaliation. All I'm saying is that the fan has no right to throw things at an athlete. What happens after the fact though should not be surprising...action consequence )only in this case it seems that the consequence is one sided....hmmm much like most penalties in hockey for that matter)
I don't approve of retaliation either. If he actually knew who threw the drink, he should've pointed it out to security. If he doesn't know who did it, it's up to LE to investigate. We're a civilization of laws, that's all. I'm all for subjecting all parties- fans included-to criminal prosecution. Many of the fans should be barred from all NBA games for the rest of the season. Although I'm not surprised at what happened, I still don't approve of the outcome. An innocent (old person/little kid) could have gotten critically injured or killed. These spoiled players have never been told "no", they've never been given limits to their behavior or learned to control their impulses. Artest has a long history of violent behavior. In an 11-minute interview all he'd repeatedly say was "I wish it hadn't happened. Let's move on. I wanna be positive" over & over again. And of course he plugged his CD three times. No apology, no responsibility.
But before we tsk-tsk about how this is symbolic of a societal breakdown: baseball of 80 years ago was a scene of drunken fights & gambling. It was far from its relatively genteel family-friendly image of today.
But before we tsk-tsk about how this is symbolic of a societal breakdown: baseball of 80 years ago was a scene of drunken fights & gambling. It was far from its relatively genteel family-friendly image of today.
here is my 2cent...
Ron Artest shouldn't of went after the fan. Actually he got the wrong guy too. He get piad plenty of dough and he doesn't need to mix it up with some drunk punk. He was not in a position where fighting was his last option of defense. Also Artest has a past where he cannot keep up with the financial world(apparently he spends more then he makes) and what do you think was gonna happen when you fight with a fan?<-----HELLO...Fines.....Lawsuits.....Civilsuits.....Lawyer fees....Lost wages..... <----common...what a dumbass.
Now as for the fans.. WoW.. If you got enough guts to throw something at the players...you better have enough guts to spread that ass in jail because that is where you belong.
Ron Artest shouldn't of went after the fan. Actually he got the wrong guy too. He get piad plenty of dough and he doesn't need to mix it up with some drunk punk. He was not in a position where fighting was his last option of defense. Also Artest has a past where he cannot keep up with the financial world(apparently he spends more then he makes) and what do you think was gonna happen when you fight with a fan?<-----HELLO...Fines.....Lawsuits.....Civilsuits.....Lawyer fees....Lost wages..... <----common...what a dumbass.
Now as for the fans.. WoW.. If you got enough guts to throw something at the players...you better have enough guts to spread that ass in jail because that is where you belong.
Like I said...I ain't defending Artest, just the one way outcome that has happened. And the wrong guy he got happened to be the friend of the guy who threw the beer. So if he didn't stop his friend, he should have been smart enough to at least stand behind him, like his friend did with him.
