fight club

A friend of mine is moving to Seattle, so last night a bunch of us took him out for dinner, and then we all went to B Street Billiards to shoot some pool.

I was standing around, waiting my turn, watching the Kings game, when ESPN interrupted the game to show footage of a huge fight at the Pistons-Pacers game. Apparently, Ron Artest fouled Ben Wallace pretty hard right near the end of the game, and Wallace responded with a hard shove. When it was all over, both benches had cleared, O'Neal, Artest, and Steven Jackson had landed punches on Detroit fans, another fan had thrown a chair, the refs had called the game, and the Pacers had exited the stadium under a barrage of beer, popcorn, and other concession goodies.

ESPN figured out what sports fans really cared about, as usual, and started running the tagline, "What will the suspensions be?" Here's my guess as to what will happen:

- Artest and Jackson will be suspended for the season. They both went running into the stands to attack fans, which is comparable to Latrell Sprewell choking his coach, for which he got 68 games.
- O'Neal will be suspended for somewhere between 20-40 games. He did punch a fan, but the fan was on the court.
- (Ben) Wallace will be suspended for 4-8 games. He shoved Artest, which is a 2-4 game penalty, but then he threw a folder at him, which doubles it.
- Richard Hamilton and Rasheed Wallace will be suspended for 2-3 games. They were both involved in some pushing and shoving on the court.
- The rest of the Pistons will be suspended for one game. The NBA is pretty strict on the rule that if you leave the bench, you're suspended.
- The rest of the Pacers might also be suspended for one game, since they also came off the bench, but it's possible some of them could argue that they were getting out of the way for their own safety.

I guess the next question is what lawsuits will be filed. Artest and Jackson will likely be sued, and maybe O'Neal also. Looks like the Pistons just took out their biggest division rival in one night.