This is not the first instance of fans throwing things at atheletes during a professional sporting event. It definitely escalated when Artest ran into the stands.
Artest was shoved/punched by Ben Wallace, if he wanted to fight he should've done it there. So, Artest is "cool and calm" there, jumps on the scorers table and pulls on a pair of headphones, gets hit in the face by a plastic cup (and despite what the commentators say about it being a cup, possibly bottle, it's clearly plastic - there's a reason they don't serve the beer by bottle.) he runs out after some 5'5" dork in the stands? What happened to being calm.
The ESPN commentators are really reaching: "If you were in Times square and someone throws a drink at you, what would you do?" Well, I would probably let the POLICE who happen to be present arrest the idiot. Then they go on to say that the players are at a disadvantage because they have to run uphill over chairs to reach the fans.
The fans were definitely in the wrong, but the beginning wasn't something unheard of, and it could have ended there instead of becoming front page news. Jackson's the one that was nuts. He was itching to go on the court and ran into the stands and clocked that one guy next two the fan Artest put a hold on. At that point you can say those fans in the vicinity are acting in self defence as well.
The media is having a field day with this, because they don't have high regard for Detroit to begin with. But watching the extra ESPN coverage, they're anti-Detroit slant is really clear. Given the same set of events this could've happened in any major sporting city. Unfortunately items have been thrown by fans before. It just happens to be the first time multiple basketball players got into a melee with the fans in the stands.
There's a lot of blame to go, ALL AROUND - fans, players, security, etc. And the fan/player/arena/security dynamic will definitely change because of this. But it's sad to watch Steven A Smith, rip on all Detroit fans "for the few bad apples, fair or not you all have to take the blame", while trying to expunge his hometown Philly of the worse fans title.
