[Swan217]

The Detroit organization is who I place at fault here for not providing enough security

Originally Posted by Corey Balint

the fans are the ones to blame, but i know it will happen and hopefully not ruin the Pacers run for the title.

And i agree with the DET org and fans being at fault. If the organization provided more security this never wouldve happenend.

I am sick and tired of hearing how bad Detroit Sports fans are. The misconception is that we're violent, stupid, and have no respect for sportsmanship. Nothing could be farther from the truth. How many other cities have had riots and bad fans, and the national media has given it little to no coverage? There were some scrums in Boston after the Sox won the Pennant and later the World Series, but where was the media attention? The small sound bytes that were made implied that these were just small, isolated incidents. Which is EXACTLY WHAT THIS WAS - AN ISOLATED INCIDENT! A few fans got out of control and a huge debacle insues.
People say, "Well, how typical of Detroit." But it's NOT just Detroit! Denver's Mile High Stadium has had their scraps with fans. So has LA, Cleveland, and practically everywhere else you could mention. What about baseball? There are always incidents of fans breaking onto the field, some seriously hurting baseball players. In 2001, Tie Domi on the Toronto Maple Leafs beat up a fan who was leaning into the penalty box in Philly. According to the logic I've seen against Detroit, that must mean that ALL Philly fans are evil and stupid and don't deserve to have a hockey team.
How about that baseball fan who got too excited and caught a fly ball which ended up scoring runs for the home team? Does that mean that ALL fans are like that, liable to do anything so that their team can win?
Since Detroit fans are sooooo bad at ALL sporting events, is this what you expect when you come to town for the Great Lakes Regional or Detroit Regional? Do you think that the people there are going to all spontaniously riot? OF COURSE NOT! Don't let the example of a few bad eggs ruin the reputation of an entire city.

And you never hear ANYTHING about how the fans of Detroit celebrated PEACEFULLY without a hitch in 1997, 1998, and 2002 when the Red Wings won the Cup! You never hear anything about how Detroit was calm and peaceful when the Pistons won the championship this year. All people care about is when Detroit does something bad, which just perpetuates the myth that Detroit is a lawless broken town like in RoboCop or something. We've had our bad breaks - 1984 Tigers, 1990 Pistons, the fireworks shooting, and most recently on Friday. But how many OTHER cities have had the same problems without HALF as much media attention as what is on Detroit?

Also, I've heard no discussion on the brilliant questions of meaubry. The officials made a rookie mistake of not breaking up Wallace and Artest and the rest immediately. They let it escalate for nearly a minute before a fan saw a perfect (perfectly stupid, albeit) shot at Artest sleeping on the scoring table.
What was Artest thinking being so casually flippant that close to upset fans? If I had just ticked off an entire arena, I'd want to put as much distance between me and the fans as possible, not stick my head in the lions den. He was asking for trouble that way, but I'm not defending the drunken fans. Artest did break the cardinal rule of sports though, going into the crown and beating up (THE WRONG) fan.

Where was security? With 50 seconds left where do you THINK that they were?!?!?! Controlling traffic out in the parking lot, of course. Who expects a riot with less than a minute to go? Most of the fans were gone, trying to beat the traffic onto I-75.

Don't blame Detroit, and don't blame the Pistons. It was an accident that got out of control, and the blame should be placed on the INDIVIDUALS responsible. The Palace has no less security than any other basketball team. In fact, I think the security is great. They were just caught with their pants down on this one. Would you expect anything more from any other stadium in this circumstance?

Incedently, I don't even like or care about basketball. I'm a hockey fan, myself. Maybe Hockey is too blame. No hockey season, then people actually GO to Pistons games. Something to think about...