Pacers-Pistons brawl from a few years back - I hadn't seen this video
TNP777
Posts: 5,710 ✭✭✭
in Sports Talk
Comments
Artest looked pretty good tonight with the lakers.
<< <i>Reminds me of that major fight at a boxing match, in I think the mid to late 90's? It was 97 or 98 at Madison Square Garden. It was a fairly major fight in the stands. Might have been a Holyfield fight.
Artest looked pretty good tonight with the lakers. >>
It was Bowe/Golata
And I forgot just how much Ben Wallace contributed to it. I always remember Artest SJax and Jermaine O'Neal fighting fans, but if Ben Wallace calmed down after a full minute of stupidity (instead of 3), he would have been ejected, everyone else would have gotten over it, the game would have continued and the Pacers may very well win the Eastern Conference.
Yeah, Artest is an idiot, but Wallace should not be forgotten in this mess.
My Podcast - Now FEATURED on iTunes
Basketball is my number one sport but it is events like this which drive fans away.
Of course similar events have been happening in Hockey with fans and coaches for years, and fights break out everynight somewhere in the league but it is considered part of the sports charm!
Steve
A lot of funny and unusual things happened in a mere span of 2-3 minutes. Artest went after the wrong guy...the guy in the blue shirt and white hat was the guy who threw the cup of soda. Ben wallace's brother, who is big as a mountain, came into the stands out of nowhere and started punching fans left and right. Then you had those two fans going onto the court for god know's what reason. Artest punches the first one...but, Jermaine o'neal literally knocked his fat friend out cold (you dont really see it in the video, but oneal ran in and punched him right on the jaw...he had to be carted out on a stretcher).
artest shouldnt have gone into the crowd. ben wallace is an idiot for losing his cool, but ultimately the brawl rests mostly on artest and jackson for going into the stands to attack the fans.
"On the night of January 6,1972 a group of Philadelphia fans instigated what the Philadelphia Daily News described as "the biggest brawl in the Flyer's five year history."
In the first period of the match Flyer defenseman Bill Brossart was high-sticked by the Blues Gary Sabourin. Philadelphia goalie Doug Favell skated to center ice in pursuit of Sabourin. Favell was restrained, but minutes later he skated over to the Blues bench and exchanged taunts with the Blues players.
A tenous calm prevailed until Blues coach Al Arbour protested a face-off to referee John Ashley. The offical promptly whistled a two-minute bench penalty against Arbour.
The Blues leader exploded and chased after the referee who was headed for the exit that leads to the officals dressing room. Several Blues players congregated near the exit. As Arbour followed Ashley down the runway, according to Arbour, "someone poured beer on me and someone else hit me."
The first stage of the riot had taken place. "All of a sudden," Arbour explained "everyone was pushing and shoving and I fell on a policeman. Then i got hit over the head with a billy club."
That was only one of several main-eventers which were exploding at the same time.Fans who had started the fight by hurling beer and debris at the Blues, soon found themselves under siege as the St Louis players, skates and all, charged up into the grandstands weilding their sticks like bayonets. Among the leaderswere Bob Plager,Phil Roberto,John Arbour and Floyd Thompson.
John Arbour claimed he was stuck with a hockey stick by the police. He later required 40 stitches to close a head wound. Meanwhile an alarm went out for additional police reinforcements until a total of 150 were summoned to break up the confrontations.
Police said that when they attempted to herd the Blues to their dressing room the hockey players attacked them. However the Blues club president Sidney Salomon Jr. accused the Philadelphia police. "That was the worst case of police brutality I've ever seen or heard about," said Salomon. "It was worst than the Chicago riot at the 1968 Democratic convention."
The Flyers management viewed the riot from a different perspective. Thet asserted that St Louis players had no business charging into the audience carrying 55-inch wooden weapons at the ready. "Using the sticks were horrible," said Flyer boss Ed Snider. "I can understand if the players went to Arbour's aid when he was in trouble, but there was no call for the players to go into the stands."
Several fans were wounded in the battle, suffering assorted cuts and breaks. When the battle was approaching its peak, a newsman who had just arrived on the scene asked one policeman what was happening. "It's the St Louis Blues against the cops" he said replied "and we're winning!"
Police managed to get the players out of the stands after the initial fight. But then "verbal abuses were exchanged between the fans and the players and the players headed back into the stands" according to the police report. "A Sargeant warned them that if they didn't get back on the ice they would all be arrested." At that point the coach Al Arbour said "You're not going to lock me up". He came at the Sargeant and pushed him down the ice. The players started to walk over the Sargeant and head for the fans. One of the players held the Sargeant down on the ice as he attempted to get up.
"As more police poured into the area the players started to skate off and the police escorted them to a tunnel which leads to the dressing room. As they did, the players started to swing wildly over the glass partitions at spectators.
"The police finally got all the players in the tunnel but the players started to swing the hockey sticks at the police. The police swung back. One of the officers grabbed a player's stick and hit him with it on the head."
Eventually the officers restored a semblance of order and the game was resumed. But when it was over the two Arbours,Thompson and Roberto were taken to the South Detective Division where they were charged with assaulting police. At 6:00 the next morning, they were freed on $500 bail each."
<< <i>
<< <i>Reminds me of that major fight at a boxing match, in I think the mid to late 90's? It was 97 or 98 at Madison Square Garden. It was a fairly major fight in the stands. Might have been a Holyfield fight.
Artest looked pretty good tonight with the lakers. >>
It was Bowe/Golata
>>
Bowe/Golata, that rings a bell. I havent followed boxing in years.
<< <i>How the F have you not seen this? I havent cared about Basketball since Kemp/Shempf, Payton< hawkins/Perkins, and I seen this many times. You a MOnk? >>
Slap!