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NBA Disgrace

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Last Friday night the NBA witnessed the worst event in its history. Never before has a riot errupted like that in an NBA Arena. The suspensions handed down to Ron Artest, Stephen Jackson, Jermaine O'Neal, Ben Wallace, and others were completely warranted.It doesn't matter if fans are throwing plastic cups at you. If there's one rule in the NBA that everyone understands, it's that you always stay on your side. Players should never ever go into the stands. Fans shouldn't come onto the court during the game. Watching Artest punch viciously go after a fan (the wrong one, no less), followed by events like Jermaine O'Neal outright punching a fan on the court was simply chilling.

But just as appalling as the players behavior was the fans in the Detroit. Remember back in June when Jimmy Kimmel got in trouble for saying Detroit fans were prone to rioting? He was right. Only the lowest of fans through plastic beer cups onto the court, drench every member of the visiting team, attack Stephen Jackson in the stands, attack Artest from behind in the stands, or square up like an idiot to fight Jermaine O'Neal.

The Lakers may have lost the NBA Finals to Detroit, but Detroit fans could learn a thing or two from us.

As Editor-in-Chief of our newsroom, I’m extremely proud of the work our top-notch journalists are doing here at LAist. We’re doing more hard-hitting watchdog journalism than ever before — powerful reporting on the economy, elections, climate and the homelessness crisis that is making a difference in your lives. At the same time, it’s never been more difficult to maintain a paywall-free, independent news source that informs, inspires, and engages everyone.

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