When will Pistons be held accountable for security lapses?
By Bob Kravitz - Indystar.com
March 29, 2005
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In November, the Pacers went to the Palace of Auburn Hills and were goaded into a brawl that effectively destroyed their season.
Friday night, a series of phoned-in bomb threats aimed at the visitors' locker room caused massive delays and serious consternation, especially among fearful Pacers personnel.
Now look at the playoff race.
If the season ended today, it would be the Pacers vs. the Pistons in the first round.
So here is commissioner David Stern's best and last chance to make the Pistons organization and the Palace hierarchy pay for the fact that the Pacers cannot play in that building fully assured of their safety:
Play Detroit's home games -- at least the ones against the Pacers -- in an empty building.
Absurd?
Excessive?
Well, the brawl and the multiple bomb threats were absurd and excessive, and it's time to make the Pistons and their small percentage of loony-tunes fans pay for the way they've treated the visitors from Indiana.
Nov. 19 was bad. This latest episode, though, may have been worse. Nobody, the Pacers included, should have to play a basketball game worried about their safety or even their life.
"What's made this whole thing unfair is, a lot has gone wrong and you know we haven't blamed anybody," Pacers CEO Donnie Walsh said. "But still, all the light has been shined on us. We've clearly taken the brunt of all this."
Which is true, but not completely unjustified. They were, after all, the ones who went into the stands, and the arguments they've presented -- "well, they started it" -- have sounded rather hollow.
But this wasn't entirely a solo act, and the other side has escaped culpability entirely. While the Pacers had their entire season -- Reggie Miller's final season -- entirely eviscerated, nothing has happened to the Pistons.
While the two individual miscreants got lifetime bans from the Palace, nobody has held the Pistons or the Palace responsible for controlling some of the rudest fans in the league. There was no fine for poor security. There was nothing. Just a promise from Stern that the league would review and increase its security presence.
Well, now comes time to hold the Pistons accountable.
Make them play the Pacers in front of empty seats.
The fact is, they do this all the time in international soccer. When a team's fans get out of hand, either at home or when traveling as a fan club on the road, soccer's various federations make the team with the rowdy following play games in an empty stadium.
It's really quite simple.
Get the players and the media in there, and keep everybody else out -- and that includes you, Kid Rock.
Wait a minute. Do you know how many millions the Pistons would lose with two, three or four empty home dates?
Fine.
Let's talk about losing money.
You take the money lost by Ron Artest, Stephen Jackson and Jermaine O'Neal, you could buy your own Pacific atoll, plus a private jet. (Sadly, Artest's CD sales did not quite make up for the lost cash).
And that doesn't mention the revenue the Pacers -- the healthy and active Pacers -- probably would have made with a reasonably long run in the playoffs.
If you're the Simon brothers, and you're looking at the loss of millions, it's hard to feel much sympathy for the Pistons or the Palace over a few games.
OK, but we're talking about a handful of drunks who touched off the brawl, and one or two lunatics who called in bomb threats. How do we know it wasn't somebody from Indiana, just trying to make the Pistons look bad?
We don't know. We don't know where the calls were coming from, and we don't know what the motivation might have been.
All we know is this: As the Pacers were waiting on their bus and voting over whether to play, the NBA and security chief Stu Jackson were threatening the club with massive fines if they didn't play the game.
Isn't that the way it's been all season?
A Pistons fan does something egregious, and the Pacers are the ones who are put in the position to take the blame.
On Nov. 19, the Pacers clearly stepped over the line. The other night, it was the NBA's turn.
"They (the league) assured us it was safe, so we played," Walsh said. "But yeah, I was angry. They're telling us about bomb threats, and the league is telling us we have to play. This has just been a nightmare year. Not just Nov. 19, but the whole thing."
By now, the Pacers have paid their penance in triplicate. They have played with seven players. They have worked to have the suspended players' salaries donated to local charities. They have stepped up their already considerable efforts, in this community and in other cities, to show that the Pacers should not be defined by Nov. 19. And somehow, they're still going to crawl through the back window into the playoffs.
And the Pistons?
They're complaining because Larry Brown is in the hospital.
Listen, if they win another le, the Pistons should vote Beer Cup Guy and Chair Toss Guy a half-share apiece.
We're all smart enough to know that the vast majority of Pistons fans are cultured and civilized, the same way we know most NBA players would never think to cross the line Artest and others crossed that night.
If it's Pacers-Pistons in the playoffs, though, how can Indiana trust they will get through a series without suffering bodily harm? Twice now this season, the Palace and its fans have failed them. Which leaves the NBA with the one option they're too frightened to consider.
After all, an empty seat never hurt anybody.
I agree Bob, son of a must pay. The Pistons have gotten of very, very light in this matter. I'd love to see them play those two playoff games in an empty arena, serves them right. They were the ones who first started it all in the first place.
Ben Wallace didn't have to shove Artest. The game was already over, why start something then? Foolish on his part. As much as it's easy to blame Artest and the fans, who got the punishment they deserved, (allegedly) how come the Pistons and the rest of the organization got off with just a mere slap on the wrist. It's time the league holds the Pistons responsible for what happen.
Cause commenting on a column about placing blame isn't exactly placing blame.
I'll try to make this clear once more.
1. Artest and Jackson's actions were over the line. Simple. And yes, if you damage the league's reputation on national television, you're going to get the bullet. That's another reason why Mad Max's suspension wasn't as bad because not everybody saw it.
Quite simply, you are a Home. Er.
LMAO! Artest and Jackson caused all of this.
Is this from an actual newspaper or the Pacers' version of SpursTalk? Because this article is the most loaded piece of homer bull I've read in a long time. First of all, how do phoned in bomb threats equal lax security? Did the Pistons not do enough to screen their phone calls? Was the security guard in charge of watching the Caller ID display taking a bathroom break? Yeah the bomb threats sucked, but what were the Pistons supposed to do about it? They swept through the locker room with bomb sniffing dogs and had about ten cops posted at all the entrances, should they have moved the game to a random local highschool gym without telling any of the fans? Would that have made things all better?
Secondly, security was lax in the Palace... just like it's lax in just about every NBA arena. I agree that the NBA needs to do more to make sure there is adequate security in place at every game. But why should the NBA single out the Palace and punish them by not allowing the arena to host playoff games all because Ron Artest and Stephen Jackson flew off the handle and started attacking fans?
I know at Key Arena the security is laughable. All the arena workers are either 60+ years old, foreign immigrants new to the country who barely speak English, or young, 5 feet tall Asian women. And I'm not exaggerating at all. If unruly fans get too out of control, it's usually other fans that will have to take care of them, unless one of the Seattle PD foot patrols are nearby, because the security guards can't really do much except politely ask them to stop rioting or whatever it is they are doing. The NBA should definitely step in and demand certain standards for security at games, but it's stupid to try to blame all the problems on the Pistons organization.
And as for the rest, the lost money and all that. Well, that's just more whining from a dissilusioned Pacers fan desperate to try to make excuses for his broken team. Sorry fool, but your organization decided to gamble by putting together a team of thugs and gangsters, and it blew up in their faces. But hey, at least in the offseason the Pacers can put together a couple of hardcore gangsta rap CD's, you know, for the kids.
i COMPLETELY agree with you! I dont think theres more or less security in any of the arenas. you cannot blame the actions of indiana players and detroits fans on the security...they arent there to babysit everyone thats there
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