Could be worse — could be Celtic/Rangers

Last night as I was flying back to Chicago I dipped into Franklin Foer’s How Soccer Explains the World. The two chapters I read were about the tight linkage between Serbia’s soccer hooligans and Arkan’s war crimes, and the fierce Celtic-Rangers rivalry that defines Glasgow. Reading the book helped put last night’s melee between the Indiana Pacers, the Detroit Pistons, and the Piston fans at Auburn Hills in the proper perspective. Brendan Loy has the immediate reaction. I’m not condoning the behavior of the fans here — Mike Celizic is correct to assign a significant amount of blame on the moronic fan that threw something at Ron Artest in the first place. And, of course, Artest was Artest — which means he subsequently lost it. If he hadn’t, however, this would have ended with some minor suspensions and would not have led off Sportscenter. In other words, it took a precise sequence of actions for this to happen, and if Artest isn’t the player in the middle, I’m not sure it escalates. This was a case of emotions spilling out of control by all concerned — starting with Artest and Ben Wallace. What it was not was a case of organized, premeditated violence with the intent of harming players or opposing fans. Go read Foer’s book for examples of truly sociopathic sports fans. What happened last night wasn’t pretty — but Marc Stein is probably right to say that the NBA will recover quickly from this episode:

The league has seen far darker days, be it the drug scandals of the 1970s that nearly put the NBA out of business, or the lockout of 1998-99 that cost Stern’s kingdom its distinction as the only major professional sports league in the United States to avoid a work stoppage…. Believe it or not, like it or not, attracting more interest to future chapters of Pistons vs. Pacers is one of the ramifications. That’s entertainment, folks. The pattern for many of us, after expressing our disgust and disappointment, is to keep following along, desperate to see what happens next.

However, Stein missteps when he says:

Much of the behavior was actually worse than soccer hooliganism, because soccer hooligans are often plain, old hooligans who pretend to be soccer fans just to have an outlet to cause trouble. Friday’s culprits threw bottles, liquids, foods, a chair and God knows what else at Pacers players to escalate the chaos to an all-time high. Or low.

In my book — and I believe most criminal codes — premeditated acts are considered more heinous than acts of passion. UPDATE: Kevin Hench has a good round-up over at Fox Sports. And Chris McCosky of the Detroit News points out the failure of the refs to take control of the situation — not to mention their inexplicable failure to whistle Artest for a foul in the first place. LAST UPDATE: Given that Artest was suspended for the rest of the season, this interview he gave last week to ESPN.com’s Marc Stein seems unintentionally hilarious. The key bit:

ESPN.com: Can the Pacers really count on you for the rest of the season? Artest: I’ll be here for the rest of the season.