that. I don't care what he THOUGHT he saw. The truth is it didn't happan. So Ron Artest is off the hook if he would have said, "I thought Fat Ass was throwing the beer at my new pop group so i went to protect them"? What, your going to say all bets are off because he touched her? Did he shove her? Apparently not, did he hit or strike her? Apparently not. I've seen the video of him going into the stands but nothing else. But everything else points to that he overacted. Touching is being implied that he was pushing her down, which only AD tries to push. Although he backing away from that by saying it looked like instead of it happaned. Beer strewn at your grill for no reason or a couple of fans telling your ill-manored family to plop there asses down because they on the other hand actually had to work a few days to witness this thrilling game. Gee, i wonder which is more reason to confront someone. Face it, if you agree with AD and not artest, your basing this on the person's charactor, not what they did. A bunch of Texans of all people acting like they would back down from someone throwing beer in there face.
"According to a fan seated near Davis' family, one fan complained that Davis' kids were obstructing his view by standing. The unidentified fan exchanged words with Kendra and physical contact was made, although no punches were thrown. Antonio Davis saw the scene unfold from the bench during a timeout with Chicago leading 100-97 and immediately reacted. "You go up there every time," Taylor said. "Just like you guys have families, if you're at the game and you turn around and see someone pushing your wife and getting into it with your wife, I don't think you're going to worry about what the score is." New York Daily News
"According to a source, the televised footage from the incident that was handed over last night to NBA security showed the heckler complaining to security that Davis' wife, would not sit down, that he was just asking her to take a seat. The heckler was removed from the building and was not identified." New York Post
"After being encouraged by his wife and son to leave the scene, (Antonio Davis) walked down the stairs and jumped up onto the scorers' table, evoking for a moment memories of Ron Artest's infamous lay-down on the table in Detroit last season that helped ignite the ugly brawl between Pacers players and Pistons fans." Newark Star-Ledger
Another thing, i'd like to know why her and that family wasn't escorted out of the building. If that was Jumana and TJ and a mother with her two kids were standing below her and a similar scene erupted, i guarandamntee you that she would be standing outside the building on her cell learning from her husband how Vince Carter took over in the last two minutes to lead the Kidd-less Nets to a victory.
I would have done exactly what Antonio did if I was fearful of my wife's safety at that moment.
I'm sure his reaction was instinctual. It was a dangerous move, to be sure, but when you love your family most men tend to react passionately to protect them.
He didn't really have time to calculate the possible consequences and probably didn't care about that in the moment things were happening. Had he started beating on the guy that would have changed things dramatically, but he was just making sure she was ok.
Security needs to be close to the families of the visitors at these games because there are so many idiot fans out there nowadays. I'd say the fault is with the Chicago security moreso than with Antonio Davis.
Interesting....the dude is filing a lawsuit against Kendra and Antonio Davis claiming she went after him first.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2298240
That's the American way!
Since this is in the wrong forum, and since there are a half dozen threads on this topic, I'm crossposting.
ESPNews just showed a video of Antonio's wife in the face of a fan who was sitting in his seat motioning for security while she wagged her finger at him. It also shows that the fan was no longer in the area when Antonio came into the stands. My opinion of this situation just changed. Dee Brown's analysis of the video was sickening as he defended Davis' wife.
Somebody's wife got in a fight with someone at a playoff game one year. I wonder if it was her.
BTW, Davis get a 5 game suspension today.
From Yahoo
That's about as much as I expected.
NBA Suspends Davis for Five Games
By Brian Mahoney
Associated Press
Thursday, January 19, 2006; 5:37 PM
NEW YORK -- New York Knicks forward Antonio Davis was suspended five games by the NBA on Thursday for entering the stands during a game at Chicago to confront a fan he thought was harassing his wife.
While the ruling by NBA vice president of basketball operations Stu Jackson showed the league accepted Davis' argument that he believed his wife was in trouble during Wednesday's game, it also made clear that entering the stands would not be tolerated, no matter the cir stances.
"We have made it plain to our players and our fans that players may not enter the spectator stands, no matter the provocation, and that violations of this policy will be treated with the utmost seriousness," Jackson said in a statement.
"We have concluded, however, that Antonio's actions were the result of his belief that his family members required his immediate assistance, and have taken those mitigating cir stances into account in setting the length of the suspension."
Davis' suspension will start with Thursday night's home game against Detroit. Ironically, the Pistons were the home team the last time players went into the stands -- when Ron Artest and Stephen Jackson started a brawl with fans in November, 2004.
An embarrassment for the NBA, the brawl led to criminal charges and lengthy suspensions for Artest, Jackson and Jermaine O'Neal.
Pistons@Knicks, DET gets a small break, not that DET was at risk of losing tonight.
You're right, it should be decided right here by us fans!
I originally thought ten games but three would probably be enough. Players going into the stands has potential disastrous results.
And yes, I would have gone into the stands too, doesn't make it okay though. It's like the song says "If lovin' you is wrong (goin into the stands) I don't want to be right".
I wish I knew what really happened.
Thought - is Antonio Davis' wife now likely to be subjected to more heckling?
Charles Barkley on TNT just asked "why would Antonio's wife be jumping up and down at a Knicks/Bulls game".
He said she should be banned for that.
Patty Biggio. Liz Ausmus.
Think they'd have cared if Craig and Brad went into the stands?
This is a problem in all sports. I remember back in the arena days fans at Spurs games were crazy. If you weren't a good player it was best that your family stayed home.
It's hard for families to sit there in the stands and hear criticism of their spouses, etc. I don't know what can be done about it, maybe have the families sit together in a section or something..
I can tell you right now that Rasho's family would have a difficult time sitting in most sections of the ATT.
Just because Davis is an NBA player doesn't give his wife the right to run her mouth or make threats.
Also, Davis should be suspended for the rest of the year for entering the stands.
5 games for a bad team is not a suspension but a vacation.
ing lame that he got hit with a 5 game suspension. It's not like he did anything other than go see if his wife was ok. Davis doesn't have a history of trouble. Thanks to some crackhead Pistons and Pacers, Davis has to pay.
Alright just my two cents. Last year when the brawl happened at the palace i was the first one to defend Ron Artest. I've been pondering about this for a while now, and i must agree, Ron Artest had absolutely no right, he would have had a bruised ego but shouldnt have gone into the stands, and i do see Kori's stand point now.
As far as AD goes i respect what he did. He went into the stands calmly. You could also tell there was another guy in the stands trying to restrain/calm him down just in case. If i was put in a situation that AD's wife was put in that night, i would hope my husband would react the way that AD did. His wife and son > a paycheck.
From here in France, my interrogation is simple :
how can we have an objective view of what happened ?
And what would be Justice for what happened ?
What would be an objective decision of the NBA to make sure EVERYBODY understands what is at stake ?
My take :
- for the NBA to simply decide and inform that A. Davis will be suspended for five games, and nothing else is a very simple way to show they haven't learn Anything of what happenend in Detroit...
A. Davis has been suspended for fives games, OK, but HE SHOULD NOT BE THE ONLY ONE TO PAY :
- the one "full of alcoohol" should be as well be suspended for five games
- And the club of Chicago should as well pay a fee for not being able to handle security
That would be an objective way to make EVERYBODY understands what is at stake.
but with this uniform decision, we do concentrate our reactions on this board on whether or not he should have reacted, etc....
But this is not the subject.... because the decision of the nba won't change anything... they just make him pay for the consequence... they are not trying to have an impact on what has allowed this situation to happen...
As a conclusion, what's gonna change after this ? NOTHING
Xap
January 20, 2006
Sports of The Times
Stern's Justice: It Is Swift, but Is It Fair?
By HARVEY ARATON
I'M sorry. I don't care what the rules are, or what awful precedent was established last season. If I instantaneously processed the belief that my wife and children were in danger, there wouldn't be enough games to be suspended from to keep me away.
At least I'd like to believe that I wouldn't just stand there and politely say, "Excuse me, David Stern will be very upset if I personally look into this matter, so will someone please fetch the security guard who is picking his nose in Section 22 to find out why that gentleman seems to have his mitts on my wife?"
Predictably, Stern's swift hand of justice came down on Antonio Davis yesterday with a five-game suspension for breaking what the N.B.A. commissioner calls "the social contract between players and fans." But Davis needn't apologize for rushing to the defense of his wife, Kendra, on Wednesday in Chicago, even if turns out that she was the one who provoked the incident, and not a 22-year-old fan, Michael Axelrod, who yesterday denied Antonio Davis's claim that he was drunk.
There are situations, believe it or not, that transcend the N.B.A.'s image on Madison Avenue and its ability to gouge corporate ticket-holders for courtside seats that have now been invaded twice in a little more than a year - once without rational explanation.
"It would be harder for me to live with myself if something happened to my wife and family," said the Knicks' Maurice Taylor, whose contribution to the latest dissection of N.B.A. character was an overtime scuffle with the Bulls' Chris Duhon that got both players tossed and injected a dose of Auburn Hills into a crowd already juiced by wild endgame swings.
Practically speaking, of course, we can all agree that players shouldn't go into the stands and we didn't need Ron Artest to teach us that. Once in a crowd, a player is a target. Anything can happen. "As athletes, we are all counted on to control those instincts to a higher standard," Isiah Thomas, the Knicks' president, said, while admitting that's easier said than done in a situation such as this one.
Professionalism is a great concept, but lurking around many corners is the unforeseen challenge, for which you can't necessarily plan your response. A year ago, the league was busy implementing changes in its beer-selling policies after people asked how dozens of courtside zealots could have fresh beverages to pour on the Pacers' heads with seconds remaining in a lopsided game.
Before the Knicks were drubbed by Detroit, 105-79, Billy Hunter, the players' union director, wondered why families of players are scattered around the lower bowl instead of having mandatory seating in a well-secured section of their own. Good question. It's time for Stern to wrestle with that one before there is a serious family fight and someone gets hurt.
As it was, Davis attacked no one and no one attacked him. He is the president of the players' union, a respected veteran who last night drew support from both sides of the Pistons-Pacers debacle - Detroit's Ben Wallace and the retired Pacer Reggie Miller. Davis will take his medicine by serving a suspension that began last night. But please, spare us the usual condemnations, the standard thugs-in-cornrows denouncements of the most scrutinized athletes in American sports.
Given the possibilities in Stern's police state, I suppose five games was on the lighter side, and was, as the league said in its statement, based on Davis's clean record and the cir stances leading to his response in the heat of the moment. But tell me, what is the N.B.A.'s excuse for its deliberate marketing scheme that produces an edgy, gladiatorial atmosphere and plays to a shoe company agenda of promoting one superstar versus another.
It's become too easy for critics to make grand generalizations now whenever someone crosses the line, but where was the universal applause when Shaquille O'Neal used the occasion of Martin Luther King Day earlier this week to give Kobe Bryant a hug?
"I had orders from the great Bill Russell," O'Neal told reporters after making peace with his former co-star, Bryant, the alleged villain in their well-chronicled breakup. "He told me I should shake Kobe Bryant's hand and let bygones be bygones." O'Neal, the bigger man, took the advice from the legend he referred to as "Mr. Russell," and the N.B.A., in a deserved twist of fate, lost the scowl from its most persistent and marketable feud.
Perhaps Russell made O'Neal see through the hypocrisy of the programming by a league that dreads more image-tattering blows, struck on the court or in the stands, then tempts the aforementioned fate in exchange for the high of an enhanced television rating. Remember this: Contrary to its celebrated crackdown on player comportment, the Shaq-Kobe he-hate-me showcase had become the N.B.A.'s holiday staple, its featured Christmas game.
Imagine if O'Neal had used the occasion of that first post-breakup meeting in 2004 to impel his full colossal force on a driving Bryant as payback for a variety of transgressions. How would that have played as a family-values special a month and change after Artest and friends brawled with fans?
Much worse than Davis breaking Stern's social contract in a moment when he feared for his wife and children's welfare. Who wouldn't have?
E-mail: [email protected]
I honestly could care less. All I care is that the Spurs win the championship.
Davis should worry about the game and tell his wife to stay home and be quiet.
From the NBA daily today...(this guy believes he got a light penalty and I agree with him)...
John Jackson
Davis penalty justified in game of truth, consequences
January 20, 2006
BY JOHN JACKSON SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST
As a general rule, I'm opposed to zero-tolerance policies and believe they mostly result in zero thought being given to complex issues.
But in the case of New York Knicks forward (and former Bull) Antonio Davis charging into the United Center stands to protect his wife Wednesday night, I believe NBA commissioner David Stern had to confirm the league's zero-tolerance policy concerning players entering the stands.
The league office announced Thursday that Davis has been suspended for five games starting with Thursday night's home game against the Detroit Pistons. Davis, who is making nearly $14 million this season, will lose roughly $845,122 in salary.
A harsh punishment? Absolutely.
A fair penalty? Definitely.
Actually, Davis is fortunate he didn't receive a longer suspension. Had any sort of physical, or even verbal, altercation taken place, he likely would have been looking at a suspension in double digits.
And it wouldn't have taken much for the situation to turn ugly -- which is precisely why the NBA's zero-tolerance policy is justified and necessary.
''We have made it plain to our players and our fans that players may not enter the spectator stands, no matter the provocation, and that violations of this policy will be treated with the utmost seriousness,'' said Stu Jackson, the league's senior vice president of basketball operations.
''We have concluded, however, that Antonio's actions were the result of his belief that his family members required his immediate assistance, and have taken those mitigating cir stances into account in setting the length of the suspension.''
Jackson made it clear that the typical suspension for entering the stands is ''double-digit games.''
''At the end of the day, what we had to decide on was the issue of Antonio breaking the barrier from the court into the stands,'' Jackson said. ''At the end of the day, that was the most important aspect of making that decision.''
Judgment from the league office was swift and that probably is a good thing for Davis -- especially if it turns out that his wife, Kendra, wasn't touched or threatened, as he contends.
I won't pretend to know precisely what happened, but the fan said Thursday that he never touched Kendra Davis and she was the one who provoked the incident.
Michael Axelrod, 22, said he wasn't intoxicated -- as Antonio Davis claimed in a statement immediately after the game -- and was simply booing an official's call when Kendra Davis, sitting two rows in front of him, got up and yelled at him to be quiet. He also contends that the only physical contact between the two came when she put both of her hands on his face.
After security arrived and Davis exited the stands, Axelrod said he was escorted to the concourse by security, but wasn't ejected and stuck around to see Bulls guard Ben Gordon's game-winning shot.
Who's telling the truth? There are conflicting eyewitness accounts, so your guess is as good as mine. Axelrod, though, does sound credible -- even though he and his lawyer (big surprise) threatened to sue Davis and his wife for $1 million.
Axelrod's father, David, is a prominent Democratic political consultant in Chicago who has worked with Mayor Daley, Sen. Barack Obama (D.-Ill.) and Sen. Hillary Clinton (D.-N.Y.).
As for Kendra Davis, she may have a credibility hurdle to clear. During the 2001 playoffs, she got into a verbal exchange with Latrell Sprewell (who didn't know who she was at that moment) during a game and was caught on camera Wednesday night leaning over to yell at and touch Axelrod.
Also, Antonio Davis' contention that he had to react because there was no time to get security was undercut by teammate Maurice Taylor, who said Davis told him the incident had been going on for ''a trip and a half'' up and down the court.
Oh, really? If that's the case, why didn't Davis immediately alert security as soon as the timeout was called?
If anybody, Davis -- a 12-year veteran and the president of the National Basketball Players Association -- should have learned the lesson from the ugly incident at the Palace of Auburn Hills in November 2004 that players can't enter the stands under any cir stances.
While five games is a stiff sentence, he's lucky it wasn't longer.
http://www.suntimes.com/output/jacks...spt-jax20.html
and another (can't believe the NBA Daily devoted TWO articles to this today!)...
HYDE: Knicks' Davis did what he had to do
Published January 20, 2006
You're a lawyer. You're arguing a case in court. You turn to the gallery and see your wife in a potentially threatening argument with a strange man.
Don't you hurry over and help?
Or maybe you're a doctor. You're consulting with a patient. You look up from your notes and see your wife outside the room in a heated, finger-pointing dispute with a man you don't know.
Don't you rush out and intervene?
That's why no one can blame New York Knicks veteran Antonio Davis for charging into the Chicago stands Wednesday night upon seeing his wife quarreling with a fan. Everyone has heard horror stories of fan behavior at games. What kind of husband wouldn't rush to her side in this case?
At the same time, what kind of NBA Commissioner is David Stern if he doesn't suspend Davis five games for doing so?
There are no bad guys in this story. Davis did what he had to do as a husband. But so did Stern as the commissioner. Davis hopped the scorer's table and sprinted up the aisle to defend his wife.
But Stern had to punish him for breaking all the rules in doing so, especially considering the meltdown in Detroit involving Indiana players in November 2004.
It doesn't matter that Davis was under control as he ran up the rows and merely protective of his family once he got there. What melee could have resulted if a fan threw a beer on him? Or if any paying customer got scared at seeing a 6-9, 260-pound NBA forward charging up the aisle?
Davis got off light, actually. Stern put the issue in the proper context of a man protecting his family. It helps that Davis isn't Ron Artest, who was a centerpiece in the Detroit incident where players fought with fans.
Davis is a 13-year veteran, president of the players' association and generally has been recognized as carrying himself in a respectable manner. So this wasn't some hotheaded athlete overacting when faced with an unruly fan.
It wasn't Texas Ranger pitcher Frank Francisco tossing a chair into the stands and breaking a woman's nose. It wasn't Milton Bradley turning the fan into a victim by charging into Dodger Stadium seats.
The strange part of Wednesday's case is it appears no unruly fan even was involved. It might have been an unruly wife. The 22-year-old fan, Michael Axelrod, said he wasn't drunk. He apparently never left his seat, either.
There also is video of Axelrod motioning to an usher for help after Kendra Davis got in his face after he allegedly booed a referees' call. She confronted him, Axelrod said. She refused to sit down when asked, he said.
Of course, since this is America, by Thursday afternoon Axelrod's attorney was threatening a $1 million civil suit, though he admitted, "A public apology from the Davises would go a long way toward resolving this."
Here's a question: Where was the Knicks' security staff during all this? It's one thing to ask why a United Center usher didn't calm down Davis' wife and the fan she was arguing with. Maybe the usher could call in arena security.
But how many would be capable of breaking up fights? And how long would that take?
The Knicks' bodyguards are at games for one reason, though. They're looking out for trouble, no matter how quickly it starts. Every team brings its own security detail to games these days. The Heat, for example, sits two bodyguards behind the bench to ensure players are kept safe.
So where were the Knicks' bodyguards? What were they doing? And shouldn't they have become involved so Davis wasn't?
Instead, an embarrassing incident broke out. Davis was suspended five games, which will cost him $600,000. You can't blame Stern for levying that punishment and demanding players stay out of the stands.
Nor can you blame Davis for what he feared upon seeing his wife arguing with a fan. Any husband would do the same. Or he might have a different fight upon getting home.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/s...a-sports-front
John Jackson is right on the money.
The consensus here says the AD was fully justified in "deserting" his job on the court and breaking NBA rules to protect his wife. ie, family trumps everything else.
There is a parallel with those NO police officers who deserted their police jobs during Katrina to go home and take care of their families. There were numerous opinions that the NOPD were s for deserting.
So what would the opinion be of NYPD/FD people deserting their jobs at the WTC to go home to their families, if their families were in "WMD" danger?
Now the lawyers are involved, and AD will probably end up with legal fees defending himself+wifey for years larger than the cost of his NBA suspension.
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