The NBA announced Thursday that fans should know they come to the games at their own risk, a riot can start at any time and no one should be surprised if large, angry men are wandering around them with evil intent.
At least that’s the message I took from the slap-on-the wrist five-game suspension the NBA levied upon Knicks forward Antonio Davis–for you conspiracy theorists, also president of the players’ association–for going into the stands late in the Bulls’ Wednesday night overtime victory over the Knicks.
That’s because after the horrible brawl in Auburn Hills, Mich., last season between the Indiana Pacers and Detroit Pistons, NBA Commissioner David Stern declared a player never would go into the stands again and risk a riot because the penalties would be so severe no player ever would consider it.
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The safety of the fans, Stern said, was the NBA’s highest priority.
Except, as it turns out, if you have a good excuse.
“We are saying you can’t go in the stands under any circumstances,” NBA basketball operations chief Stu Jackson said in a conference call with reporters. “But we recognize in this case Antonio, when he looked up into the crowd, felt his family needed some assistance. And we did take that into consideration, as we do circumstances around every incident we review.”
I am not unsympathetic about the need to protect your family and any person’s right to do so.
But you can’t take the law into your own hands.
For the same reasons the police are available to ordinary citizens and the court system is established for justice, security officials are available–and were in great number Wednesday night–to handle any incident.
The message to players after last season was under no circumstances–none–could a player go into the stands again.
Was Kendra Davis in trouble? In the end, no. In fact, it may be that she assaulted a fan. At the very least, in the TV pictures, it was pretty clear it was Kendra trying to calm Antonio before he returned to the basketball court.
But there could have been a riot.
Knicks players had inched from their bench toward the aisle and were poised to go into the stands after Davis. Players said afterward they considered Davis, and by extension his wife, members of their family.
Was this just, “No harm, no foul?”
Attempted murder isn’t a crime? Just murder?
It’s amazing in a city where Dodgers players went into the stands in Wrigley Field a few years back, and two fans went onto to field to assault a Kansas City Royals coach, that someone didn’t take a punch or push at a 6-foot-9-inch man angrily stalking up the steps and yelling at people. What would have happened then?
That’s what the NBA said it would prevent. But a five-game suspension worth approximately $850,000 to Davis hardly seems substantial enough to discourage this from ever happening again.
But watch out next time, Jackson said.
“Any player going into the stands after this, automatically we would consider double-digit game suspensions,” Jackson said. “But because there were some different circumstances in this case, we ended up with a five-game suspension.”
This sounded an awful lot like the parents you see screaming at kids in the supermarket saying, “We’re going home right now if you don’t stop! And no candy!”
I also should explain I have considerable information here. This is unusual in most reporting cases. Usually, we run around asking people we don’t know things and trying to figure out who is lying the most.
I know Michael Axelrod, one of the fans involved in the incident. He’s the son of one of my closest friends, David Axelrod, who once worked for the Tribune and is now a political consultant. I’ve known Michael his entire life and am confident in his version of events. I also know in the end, despite all this talk about lawsuits, he only wants an apology because he felt wronged.
Actually, from details of the investigation, it’s unlikely the real culprit was Axelrod. Davis was yelling at a man seated in front of Axelrod and immediately behind his wife.
And for all the complaining that has been done about referees in Chicago lately, everyone should thank lead referee Ron Garretson. When it seemed the incident was about to explode, it was Garretson who got next to Davis. The presence of an official, like a policeman would for a regular citizen, helped calm Davis and defuse the situation.
Here’s what happened according to various accounts:
Axelrod was deriding the referees in the waning moments of a close game. Kendra was in attendance with several children and heard something she didn’t like from behind her. There’s a discrepancy about what was said: One man said something vulgar was shouted with the kids standing up and blocking the view of some fans; others said it was merely a request for the kids to sit.
Kendra, known around the NBA as a feisty fan and supportive wife who has been in nasty disputes in the past with Jerry Krause, Latrell Sprewell and members of the Toronto media, headed up the steps behind her and had her hands in Axelrod’s face.
TV replays will show him still sitting and turning to an usher for help. It turns out the security there was watching Kendra and took a seat across the aisle and merely watched her because they knew she was a player’s wife. That apparently was unknown to the fans. Some of the talking got louder, and things happen at sporting events when a parent believes off-color language is used and then confronts someone they believe might have used the language.
So there was a security guard there almost the entire time as a witness, but Davis didn’t know that. And, seeing his wife agitated, he interpreted it as someone attacking her. They are known as a close couple who often make eye contact during games.
Davis, it should be pointed out, is one of the true gentlemen of the NBA, a truly gracious professional. As the primary union player who negotiated the labor contract, he should have known better. He admits and even told the NBA he watched what was going on as the teams made several trips up and down the court, and then determined his wife was in danger and acted.
But in admitting that, it was clear he could have turned around and asked any of the half dozen security officials around the team’s bench to go up the half dozen rows at midcourt where the dispute was occurring.
Jackson came up with one of those dog-ate-my-homework excuses in justifying the shorter suspension by saying the primary Knicks security guard who travels with the team was in the locker room following Maurice Taylor’s ejection and was unavailable to do something.
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But the Bulls have dozens of off-duty police throughout the arena only too happy to spring into action.
Davis waited until a timeout and leaped the scorer’s table in a frightening reminder of the Ron Artest incident and was up the steps shouting at a man–not Axelrod–who may well have been intoxicated. There were no other fights or altercations in the area or the arena–and they rarely ever occur at a Bulls game. Axelrod was removed briefly but was allowed to return to watch the end of the game after conferring with security.
The Pacers’ Stephen Jackson went into the stands to aid a teammate and was suspended 30 games. And that was before Stern’s edict, the NBA’s new prime directive on fan security that the Starship Stern already seems to have violated.
With a close game and patrons who paid about $100 per seat, this was hardly a rowdy, frustrated crowd. Nothing happened, but it could have. The NBA has only endorsed the behavior it once considered abhorrent.
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Fandemonium
Wednesday night wasn’t the first time Chicago has seen fans and players in conflict:
When: April 15, 2003
What happened: Eric Dybas runs onto U.S. Cellular Field and tries to tackle first-base umpire Laz Diaz. A gang of Royals stopped Dybas.
When: Sept. 19, 2002
What happened: William Ligue Jr. and his son attack Royals first-base coach Tom Gamboa during a Sox home game; Gamboa suffers permanent hearing loss.
When: May 16, 2000
What happened: A fan grabs Chad Kreuter’s cap in the visitors’ bullpen at Wrigley Field. Kreuter and several Dodgers teammates trade punches with fans in the stands.
When: Sept. 28, 1995
What happened: Cubs reliever Randy Myers knocks down John Murray, a fan who charged him at Wrigley Field.
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