Monroe: Protecting players, fans top priority

[Kori Ellis]

Monroe: Protecting players, fans top priority
Web Posted: 11/21/2004 12:00 AM CST

http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/b....780c306f.html

San Antonio Express-News

Go to a professional basketball game in some cities in Italy or Greece and one of the first things you notice is the plastic shield behind the team benches. It rises up and curves gently over the top of the bench, and if you have a seat in one of the first few rows you wind up looking at the game through a plastic window.

Plastic also covers the tunnels that lead from the court to the players' locker rooms, the better to keep the beer — and spittle — off the players' heads.

Hooliganism at some European League basketball games routinely includes the tossing of drinks, coins and batteries at the players and referees, on and off the court, so league and team officials do what they can to minimize the risk of injury.

You hate to think such extreme measures are headed to NBA arenas. But in the aftermath of the ugliness at The Palace of Auburn Hills on Friday, league officials would be foolhardy not to consider any and all means of ensuring nothing like what occurred in the final minute of the Pistons-Pacers game ever happens again.

Ron Artest didn't need to give Ben Wallace a "hard foul" with his team up 15 with 45 seconds left. Wallace clearly went over the line when he shoved Artest after the foul. The fan who tossed a cup at Artest as he lay on the scorer's table clearly sparked the in-the-stands melee. Palace security was ill-prepared to deal with everything that took place. It doesn't matter who was to blame for the incident; the league has to take giant steps to see to it that nobody has to consider wearing a motorcycle helmet and a flak jacket to attend an NBA game.

Of most immediate concern: Christmas Day.

The Pistons play the Pacers at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis on Christmas. Memories of Friday's outrage still will be relatively fresh.

Ho-ho-ho.

If you were a Piston, would you want some sort of physical assurance, like a plastic shield behind the bench, to protect you from flying objects, not to mention verbal abuse?

One NBA general manager said Saturday we should expect the league to over-react. Feel free to interpret that to mean that Artest, and perhaps Jermaine O'Neal and Stephen Jackson, can expect even longer suspensions than the 10 days Vernon Maxwell got when he went into the stands in Portland eight years ago to accost a fan who had been spewing particularly nasty verbal venom, including insults about a child of Maxwell's who had died.

The GM said it will be a major surprise if the league doesn't mandate tighter security at games, too. More off-duty cops. More security guards. Lower tolerance for unruly fan behavior.

Referees already have a mandate from the league to do everything they can to defuse potentially explosive situations before they happen. They are reminded of any past incidents involving players involved in the game they are working that night and discuss the need to be aware of "bad blood."

There's not much a referee can do about a hard foul or the instant reaction to it.

There are no good answers, except to eliminate what NBA coaches and players call "knuckleheads." Of course, there is no known test for "knucklehead-edness."

Teams might be able to shape their rosters to weed out players they suspect might engage in knucklehead behavior. Since ditching Dennis Rodman, the Spurs have managed to put together one of the NBA's consistently compe ive rosters without signing goofs or "enforcers." Having David Robinson, and then Tim Duncan, helped immensely in shaping a class roster.

Eliminating knuckleheads from the crowd is a much more difficult chore, though arena security forces already have a lot of la ude in ejecting fans whose behavior crosses accepted lines, including verbal abuse.

I recall a game in Denver when a fan who had paid a lot of money for a seat not more than 10 rows off the court was escorted out of the building after he refused to stop using a very offensive descriptive for Nick Van Exel.

The league needs to over-react a bit after Friday's mess, and it will.

Look for a lot more than 10 games for Artest, O'Neal and Jackson; five for Wallace.

Expect a hefty fine for the Pistons for failing to provide better in-arena security.

We likely will be spared having to view games through the plastic shields behind the players' benches, at least for now.

They're one more ugly incident away from implementation.

[boutons]

"Ron Artest didn't need to give Ben Wallace a "hard foul" with his team up 15 with 45 seconds left."

Again, has anybody heard an explanation why starters of both teams were on the court deep into what was inarguably garbage minutes, the game irretrievably decided?