The Pacers Play On Saturday

[Kori Ellis]

So does that mean the NBA has to decide everything tonight?

[timvp]

That means the NBA has to decide tonight or tomorrow morning.

[exstatic]

Some of the Pacers will be playing Saturday...

[Johnny_Blaze_47]

This should be good.

vBookie!

[ShoogarBear]

Home against Orlando.

Hey, beerman!

[Johnny_Blaze_47]

Well, Hedo can swing his purse at any Pacers that start shit.

[pooh]

Suspensions, if lengthy ones will take awhile to come down, especially after this. Cause they'll have to review a shitload of tapes of this game.

[Kori Ellis]

I don't think they can let Artest, O'Neal or Jackson play tomorrow.

[pooh]

I don't think they can let Artest, O'Neal or Jackson play tomorrow.

I'm pretty sure those three will play, but to what extent, who knows? What WILL be intersting, is the reaction Pacers' fans will give them when they hit the court later tonight.

[TheWriter]

They'll have to suspend them... they punched fans.

[Phenomanul]

I'm pretty sure those three will play, but to what extent, who knows? What WILL be intersting, is the reaction Pacers' fans will give them when they hit the court later tonight.


A true Pacers homer.....

There's no way you could let any of those three play tommorrow.

[samikeyp]

I wouldn't be surprised if League officials are up all night on this one....I really don't see Artest, O'Neal or Jackson playing only because it was so blatant what they did.

[Johnny_Blaze_47]

Yeah, there's no way Artest, Jax and O'Neal play tomorrow.

[Notorious H.O.P.]

Isn't there also automatic one game suspensions for players that come off the bench during a fight? I thought I remembered an instance over the past few seasons where several players came off the bench and the NBA allowed the players to serve their suspensions at different intervals so they could have enough players to suit up for the upcoming games.

[toosmallshoes]

so i guess that means the pacers are gonna have to go 5 on 12 for about a week.

[timvp]

Isn't there also automatic one game suspensions for players that come off the bench during a fight? I thought I remembered an instance over the past few seasons where several players came off the bench and the NBA allowed the players to serve their suspensions at different intervals so they could have enough players to suit up for the upcoming games.

Correct. If it is a bunch of players, they suspend them in alphabetical order.

[Rummpd]

The Pacers have always been close to being on the verge of being thugs - for al lthe fans faults, lots of teams would have handled the incident a lot better than what happened.

[coachtf]

Right or wrong Jax and Artest are looking at being sued by any fan that they made contact with. The guys who came onto the court are going to get punished and Arest was defending himself. However that shit where Jack and Artest went after and attacked fans for throwing things at them is going to be complicated. The fans were wrong but Jack is the one who I think might be in some real trouble when all is said and done.

[FromWayDowntown]

However that shit where Jack and Artest went after and attacked fans for throwing things at them is going to be complicated. The fans were wrong but Jack is the one who I think might be in some real trouble when all is said and done.

Actually, it probably won't be complicated. The law generally provides that you have a right to defend yourself with appropriate force when there is an imminent chance of bodily injury. That does NOT mean that you get to chase someone down if they say something that pisses you off or if they throw something at you. It means that if they roll up on you, you can defend yourself.

This situation will make an interesting law school examination question, but I'll explain why I don't think this is complicated. Artest was in no imminent danger of bodily injury after the first cup was thrown. He might have been mad, and he might have been justifiably concerned, but the "assailant" was nowhere near him. By pursuing the assailant by jumping into the stands, Artest can be held civilly liable for both assault and battery. Steven Jackson is in the same boat, since he willingly went into the stands and began throwing punches. He might have been pissed or felt like he needed to stand up for himself, but neither of those feelings is a justification for an assault or battery. Asked to put a line on it now, I'd say it's a near certainty that both Jackson and Artest will be paying out some settlement money, and there's a good chance that each could face some type of felony charge in the near future.

Artest's penalties might be mitigated by the fact that a different fan sucker punched him from behind, but that was only after Artest had started into the stands. So the justification is pretty limited.

Things get fuzzier with Fred Jones -- Jones does have a self-defense justification for any punches he threw, since he appeared to be trying to break up the fight and got cold-cocked by some random fan.

I also think that things are fuzzy with Jermaine O'Neal, particularly with his flying punch to the prone fan after the Artest knockout in front of the Detroit bench. O'Neal might have a justification defense because the fan was somewhere he wasn't supposed to be. At the same time, the fan had made no movement towards O'Neal, so the self-defense justification is going to be difficult to prove.

[SequSpur]

Judge Ito would have all this figured out in no time.

[samikeyp]

Bullshit! Get Wapner...he solved those cases in 15min. :)

[genghisrex]

I'm pretty sure those three will play
Oops (http://www.spurstalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6428).

[FromWayDowntown]

Yeah, oops.

I think Pooh must have meant to say: "I'm pretty sure those three won't play for quite a long time."

[IcemanCometh]

pooh is a fucking moron

[dcole50]

Well, Hedo can swing his purse at any Pacers that start shit.
:lol

I can't believe people thought that the NBA would let Artest and crew on the court tonight.