A frolic in Cambodia

[baltassoc]

Originally posted by ThurgreedMarshall
You know, I've been talking about this a lot. It's a shame that the only way you are going to be able to really curb this kind of behavior is to throw someone out of the league. Short of a murder on the actual court, it will never fucking happen.


TM

I think it will partially happen. The NBA before the Tomjanovich incident makes today's NBA look like ballet. One shattered jaw (and okay, this was as close as one can get to murder on the court without someone actually dying -and apparently there was a real possibility of Rudy dying), and the league cracked down in a way that really openned the doors for the NBAs Bird/Magic/Jordan golden era. Few of the players in the league were alive when Rudy T had his jaw shattered. The NBA has gotten soft. I don't know if this will be the incident that turns the tide, but I see a crackdown coming that will clean the game up considerably.

[Sidd Finch]

Originally posted by ThurgreedMarshall
You know, I've been talking about this a lot. It's a shame that the only way you are going to be able to really curb this kind of behavior is to throw someone out of the league. Short of a murder on the actual court, it will never fucking happen.

These players need to be brought back to reality. They've been coddled and babied and praised and loved most of their lives. They've been shielded and protected and excused for wrong doing most of their lives. They feel like they are owed so much more than they actually deserve. Watching the interviews around the league, yesterday, it amazed me how every single player seemed to blame the fans yesterday. These guys really feel like Artest and O'Neal and Jackson were somehow wronged by the league. Their expectations of how they should be treated are totally fucking skewed.

Someone needs to have his career ended by the league for attitudes to change. When they sit rookies down for their orientation and they teach them about protecting their finances, the dangers groupies pose and how to adjust to not having 100 of your closest friends around you all the time, they need to explain something else to these kids. And they need someone to point to.

They need to know that they live one of the most privileged lives in the history of the world. They are showered with money, love, adulation, opportunity and access that doesn't come without being a part of the nba. They need to know that part of the job -- part of earning all of those things -- is the ability to control yourself in ugly situations. Because they don't believe that now. They think that they are giving their gift to other people and they are owed something more than what they already have (as if that is somehow even possible). But, they won't listen. They won't listen until someone tells them, "You see Ron Artest? He's playing in Europe for $5 million less a year because he didn't think about what was important to him. He could have gone to the locker room wet and angry and he would have been fine. Now he plays for Slovania. You want that to happen to you? Okay, now that I have your attention, let's talk about how to avoid that kind of situation."

TM

2.

But the league doesn't have full control over the situation -- didn't the suspension of Sprewell (already a pretty light response to a choking assault) get reversed?

[Mmmm, Burger (C.J.)]

Originally posted by Sidd Finch
2.

But the league doesn't have full control over the situation -- didn't the suspension of Sprewell (already a pretty light response to a choking assault) get reversed?

2 here as well. Spre got a one-year suspension initially, which was cut back to the remaining 68 games (or whatever) of the season. I think they may have cancelled his contract, too, which is part of the reason for the fight over the suspension. Artest's contract hasn't come into play . . . at least yet.

I'd guess the league will put a lot of effort into keeping the season ban. They might end up, after arb., dropping a few games off the other long ones.

[ThurgreedMarshall]

Originally posted by Sidd Finch
2.

But the league doesn't have full control over the situation -- didn't the suspension of Sprewell (already a pretty light response to a choking assault) get reversed?

In part. The suspension was reduced. We don't really know what happened in that case, though. No video footage. Neither person really going into detail publicly about what exactly happened. P.J. might have pushed him to a point where Latrell exploded. Coaches tend to do this and PJ had a history of being a dick (again, not a justification for choking him).

I think this one is going to be hard to get reduced. High profile. Lots of other incidents (including the NHL assault and the MLB brawl we talked about here) have been leading up to this. A message needs to be sent.

TM

[greatwhitenorthchick]

Originally posted by ThurgreedMarshall
NHL assault

Kind of apples and oranges. The high-profile NHL assaults - Ciccarelli, McSorley, Bertuzzi - didn't involve fans. I think it is worse when fans are involved.

[SlaveNoMore]

greatwhitenorthchick
Kind of apples and oranges. The high-profile NHL assaults - Ciccarelli, McSorley, Bertuzzi - didn't involve fans. I think it is worse when fans are involved.

Maybe he meant when those punk-ass Bruins Milbury and O'Reilly went into the MSG stands.

[Sidd Finch]

Originally posted by greatwhitenorthchick
Kind of apples and oranges. The high-profile NHL assaults - Ciccarelli, McSorley, Bertuzzi - didn't involve fans. I think it is worse when fans are involved.

Yeah, but that's just because hockey fans are pussies, hiding behind barriers and all.

[ThurgreedMarshall]

Originally posted by greatwhitenorthchick
Kind of apples and oranges. The high-profile NHL assaults - Ciccarelli, McSorley, Bertuzzi - didn't involve fans. I think it is worse when fans are involved.

I don't think it's apples and oranges at all. I think it is symptomatic of the attitude professional athletes have. They are incapable of controlling themselves and it is because there are no real consequences. And remember how it all started. Artest laid a cheap-shot on Wallace in a way that could have ended his season or his career. Not dissimilar to the Bertuzzi incident. And the attitude, that something like that is okay to do to an opposing player, carried over to fans when Artest was doused with soda or beer or whatever.

TM

[notcasesensitive]

Originally posted by Not Bob
The fans actually in Green Bay are (according to reputation -- not that I've ever visited Lambert* Field) extremely pleasant. The fans that root for the Packers on the road are idiots.

I was on the road two or three years ago for a couple of hearings, and the local NFL team sucked, so they didn't sell out any of their games. I decided to go, and picked up a ticket outside the stadium for about 75% of face value. The local team was playing the Pack, and the number of drunken idiots with foam cheeseheads screaming in my face in the sushi line when the Packers were up by 14 at halftime was amazing.

At that point, I began praying for Brett Fahv-ruh to get a broken leg. And I like Brett, and dislike the home team. So I feel your pain.

*Sigh.

Ture. I was rooting for the visiting team earlier this year at Lambaugh, and the fans couldn't have been nicer. I've never encountered Green Bay fans on the road (well, other than the one that I sleep with nightly), so no basis to know if they're all asses, but I did see the episode of Airline where the Southwest gate agent had to hold the drunken fool Packer fans off their flight to see the game because they got inebriated at the airport bar. And everything does relate in some manner back to reality tv, non?

[NotFromHere]

Originally posted by notcasesensitive
Ture. I was rooting for the visiting team earlier this year at Lambaugh, and the fans couldn't have been nicer. I've never encountered Green Bay fans on the road (well, other than the one that I sleep with nightly), so no basis to know if they're all asses, but I did see the episode of Airline where the Southwest gate agent had to hold the drunken fool Packer fans off their flight to see the game because they got inebriated at the airport bar. And everything does relate in some manner back to reality tv, non?

I have rooted for the visiting team in many hostile stadiums (e.g. Oakland), but the worst I have ever been treated anywhere while wearing an opposing team's colors has been in Tempe. I couldn't believe how obnoxious the Cardinal fans are. I guess if you don't win many games, you have to take it out on people. I saw one guy almost get the hell beat out of him by a gang (10, 12?) of guys who didn't look like they had actually gone into the game but were just cruising the parking lot looking for a fight. Most of them hammered beyond recognition and already with blood on their shirts.

[greatwhitenorthchick]

Originally posted by notcasesensitive
Lambaugh

What is the inside joke about butchering lambeau field that I am missing? Explain to a football ignoramus, please.

[Not Bob]

Originally posted by greatwhitenorthchick
What is the inside joke about butchering lambeau field that I am missing? Explain to a football ignoramus, please.

Mine was a tribute to Not President John F. Kerry, who famously called it "Lambert Field" on a campaign visit to Wisconsin.

Not (finally took the Kerry-Edwards bumper sticker off of the Trans-Am today) Bob

[Gattigap]

Originally posted by NotFromHere
I have rooted for the visiting team in many hostile stadiums (e.g. Oakland), but the worst I have ever been treated anywhere while wearing an opposing team's colors has been in Tempe. I couldn't believe how obnoxious the Cardinal fans are. I guess if you don't win many games, you have to take it out on people. I saw one guy almost get the hell beat out of him by a gang (10, 12?) of guys who didn't look like they had actually gone into the game but were just cruising the parking lot looking for a fight. Most of them hammered beyond recognition and already with blood on their shirts.

If it's worse than Oakland, then deaths must've been involved.

Getting off of BART and walking to the Coliseum, you can look over to the parking lot to see Raiders fans in their pregame festivities. While watching the smoke rise, you can almost hear the ominous NFL Films theme music in the background.

[SlaveNoMore]

ThurgreedMarshall
I don't think it's apples and oranges at all. I think it is symptomatic of the attitude professional athletes have. They are incapable of controlling themselves and it is because there are no real consequences.

From Drudge:

• Protester causes melee at DC baseball name unveiling
  Mon Nov 22 2004 13:00:00 ET
  
  Baseball's big party got thrown a curveball before it even began.
  
  Officials from the sports world and the city government were in Union Station today to confirm what was already widely known -- that the Expos are being re-named the Washington Nationals. But before the media event got underway, D-C Statehood Green Party member Adam Eidinger jumped onto the stage holding a sign protesting Mayor Tony Williams' planned stadium deal.
  
  Eidinger was jumped by several men, including former Washington Senators announcer Charlie Brotman. A tussle ensued, and the podium nearly fell over, before security managed to drag Eidinger off stage.
  
  As for the new name, it's not really that new. Baseball officials said there were teams named the Nationals in the 1870's and 1880's, and that the Senators were originally the Nationals from 1901 to 1956.

Perhaps they should be called the "Bullets"

[ThurgreedMarshall]

What's the record for longest time between posts during the workday?

What's the record for fewest posts on this board during a non-vacation workday?

Who has a sex poll that can liven this place up?

TM