Brawl Fallout

I never understood why people made a big deal over this. They were not charged with felonies so what is the big deal. Cop a plea and pay the court costs and do your 120 hours of community service. It was really dumb to waste money getting lawyers involved.

ESPN loves

any news about the brawl. It means they can reshow the video 50 more times.

It still blows my mind that Artest's teammates would follow his lead after his exploits following his dousing.

The fan that stirred-the-drink that night was dead-wrong in his action. Hothead Artest was dead-wrong in his response.

Why so many of Artest's teammates would join in the fray and not act as restrainers baffles me. Obviously, clear thinking did not prevail that night...intoxicated or not.

Carlisle was not in control of his team that night...Artest was.

I questioned JD's firing of RC after it happened...after a couple of pretty successful seasons when it seemed that the Pistons were re-invigorated. 'The Brawl' made me see JD's decision in a new light.

Carlisle may be a good bball coach...but I don't think he commands the respect of his players. For all of his players to 'go off' simultaneously was clear evidence to me of a primary reason JD canned him.

There are many claims that LB's an ass...but I think he was able to teach lessons beyond those taught on the court...which I feel were crutial to the Piston's success in the last few years. Playing "the right way" goes beyond the basketball court.

As a "player's coach", I hope Flip can keep 'the right way' alive for our youth. Our vets already know it from LB's lessons and will probably never forget it.

detteam

I'm not sure any coach could have prevented something like that. It happened so quickly and was totally unexpected. Like you said, it was amazing that so many players reacted as they did.

Sheed is a poster boy for technicals and I don't think it would be fair to blame Larry Brown and say he has no control over his players even though on any given day it WAS an expected occurrence for Sheed to mouth off to a referee.

Your crap is so overblown and you showed your bias with some of your adjectives. Who was in control that night? Ben? LB? Charlie Haddad?
As mentioned here, Carlisle used that as a motivator. He stated several times that they didn't feel safe and the place was a madhouse. Your blatant homerism is what made the brawl what it was and always will be: Obviously "clear thinking" won't prevail on it but we won't expect it from you.

Being lightweight punchers probably saved the Pacers from heavyweight legal action. It'd be much harder to let this die away if they'd seriously injured the fans, but it's no harm/no foul and that's fine with me. People who've taken sides on this issue haven't budged in a year, so all we can do is try to put it behind us.

Yes he did use it as a motivator, but he shouldn't have had to. I lost all respect for anything he did while he was here after that brawl. Carlisle, who spent two solid years here, all of a sudden 'fears for his life' at the palace? That just goes to show how he really felt about the city and its people long before the brawl ever took place.

Instead of fanning the flames with his guys and making them feel like they were justified in attacking fans (most of whom did nothing), he should have been holding his guys responsible and tongue lashing them for their idiotic and childish behavior.

We fielded a team NAMED THE BAD BOYS! Do you think that nothing was ever thrown in their direction? For all the personal insults and questions of integrity that dogged the Pistons during their championship run, did you ever hear of Laimbeer or Mahorn tossing fans through windows, spittin on them, or charging into the stands to go after anyone? I don't think so.

So, while Indy fans can go on with their insults regarding Detroit, or calling Ben Wallace "Rambo", I'll be happy to watch them continue to deny that they had any culpability in this entire matter and content they "should" be champions, while we actually HAVE a championship. No one on their roster, least of all Reggie Miller (particularly for his commentary on the city of Detroit), acted with any large measure of respectability and I, for one, will be satisfied if the Pacers (in their current form) never reach any measurable level of success