it wasn't a pretty scene last night at the palace of auburn hills.

if you missed the game, there're plenty of clips/footages/articles around the web about the brawl, or the riot, or whatever you want to call it.

here's my thought. first of all, i can't blame how artest responded. i would've done the exact same thing, as well as 95% of you would've. when you get degraded by people in that fashion, especially after taking a hard hit to the neck thanks to ben due to a foul that's not even a flagrant, your patience tends to run a tad short.

imagine if shaq reacted the same way ben wallace did tonight everytime shaq get hammered under the basket. then shaq would be the only center left in the league.

then, there's that stephen jackson guy the pacers acquired from the hawks. i've thought of jackson as a good perimeter shooter that can spread the floor, ever since the championship year he had with the spurs. but after this incident, where he picked fights with numerous pistons players and fans WHEN HE WAS NOT EVEN INVOLVED IN ANY PART OF IT, he just showed to me and the rest of the world he's another thug.

i've heard from a quite a few friends that detroit have some of the worst (or best, depend on how you perceive it) fans in the league (remember malone mentioning 6am shouting in front of the lakers' hotel last year?). yeah. i refused to buy into that until i see it with my own eyes. and i did.

most of the detroit fans were good, saw that pistons was down tonight and made early exits out of the arena. but to those that poured beer down on pacers' coaching staff and throwing ice/beer bottles/popcorn/CHAIR on the court, you've crossed the line and you deserve the beating that you got.

i hoped that ben wallace get fined, as he was the catalyst of the whole incident, jackson not allowed to play for 10+ games, and artest suspended at least a week with fines, despite the fact that his actions might've been "self defense". i couldn't blame artest. nba players are suppose to behave professionally. but nba players are human too with human emotions. and when you push someone over his emotional limit, you deserve the beatdown you get. but it doesn't justify artest's actions, so he's gotta take the consequences, regardless of the circumstances.

(today nba announced that artest, jackson, o'neal (pacers) and wallace (pistons) are suspended indefinitely. i missed how jermaine o'neal clocked a fan, who was on the court and taunting the pacers, right in the jaw. damn that hit was beautiful. i mean, he shouldn't have done that... yeah...)

but artest will get more than his share of the blame and punishment. he stands for everything that's wrong with the nba because people cannot see past how much he's changed, how much restraint he had shown last night, and how angry YOU would've been if you were in his shoes.

but if you think the indiana players were at more fault then the big ben or the loyal piston fans, maybe that last championship got into your head a little too much.

maybe time to rename the city to detriot. i would be personally ashamed of myself as a rockets/astros/texans fan if this kind of stuff happened in houston.