Mr. Casey00, To answer your question brother go to NBA.com or just switch your TV channel to some sports news. The person who threw the beer cup on Artest's face identified as John Green had been interviewed by several news media, ESPN being the one showing it repeatedly. By now, I believe, you must have had known that he has been banned from entering the PAalace at Auburn Hills. Additionally cirminal charges had been filed against him. And Oakland county police have been doing excessive reviews of the videotapes to correctly identify the personnels involved in the brawl and the degree of their convictions. So, I am expecting some announcements from the police department to be made anytime soon. NOne ever said fans are/were innocent for that alma matter. A fan provoked Artest physically by throwing that beer cup. That wasn't a good thing to do. However, how stupid is it to jump to the stands to get that fan?? Someone wrote (in one of the posting above) "he even went there and asked the guy if he was the one, i mean he didn't flat out laid down the guy- Unknown" no offense brother but you can watch the video over and over, there ain't any sign of Artest halting for a moment or speaking a word to anyone when he got hit by the beer cup. He just stormed into the stands. SO-- your defense of Artest sounds really stupid/premature to me. Athletes are under contract with thier respective organizations, not the fans. It will be awfully stupid idea to make the fans donate their years earning to a charity. They are banned from coming to the Basketball arena.... which is logically equivalent to a player's suspension from the Basketball season. Monetary wise it's nothing same ( Unless John Green and/or other fans are millionaires/billionaires also). And each franchises are a part of NBA (we are talking about pro-basketball here in US). So, NBA can fine/suspend the athletes not the fans. All they can do against the fans is... ban them from coming to the stand. Well, maybe the fans CODE of conduct can be made more strict. However, I didn;t mean to say that the fans should be excused. They should be penalized as severely as the opposing athletes... whether it's by the police/court or the NBA itself. Especially the one/ones who threw that steel chair. If someone comes with the idea that Athletes should go to the stands to confront the fans because a beer cup had been thrown on him..... I will say.. YOU are a STUPID ass. An athlete is mad/angry/crazy because of what happened on the court.... that has nothing to do with a fan throwing objects at him. Oh yeah, it makes the matter worse but THe athlete was mad/angry... you cannot blame the fan for that. If you are walking on the street (As Charles Barkley says .. I am not in an agreement with him about what he said on TV) and someone throws stuff at you, yeah you would like to beat the nigga outta hell. But while you are on the court.... you should know your limitations. I don't think Artest's suspension was too long. See, what happened to that baseball player (Maybe from Florida or LA..... don't remember) this gone season.. he tried to hit (threw a chair I believe) the fans and he got suspended for the rest of the season along with the criminals charges. People might argue his suspension was shorter because Baseball season was approaching the end.That's not the case. EVen if that incidence had occured on the opening day of the baseball season, suspension would have been the same. I can try find the links upon request. Lots of talks were hosted on TVs on that issue and almost everybody agreed. Of course including the player himself. And I know, most people (here on Sajha and on media) today don't even remember that (it's about 2 -3 months old) mishap. And now I see people talking BLAH... Blah Blah here. Just because, Artest is a more popular player doesn't mean he gets special treatments. He is a player. That's how the league sees it. To me the suspension is little short. You go and smack the WRONG person ! hey hit the wrong guy(even if he had hit the right guy it shouldn't be any better).. you guys expect him to do exactly what he did... you guys must have some problems. What's the matter with you jerks???? oh... since Artest hit the wrong guy.. so that GUY has every right to knock Artest also... is that how you guys see the thing? In someone else words.. that's totally justified?? heck .. we are human beings and should know how to control our emotions, especially when we know where we are and what values we have. Of all, S. jackon's suspension is the shortest one. Why in the world did he throw that CHEAP shot on another innocent fan. What in the world did that guy did to either Artest or JAckson??? That's not human like..... forget about professionalism. ANd people still think His suspension was bit inappropriate. I say, that Mofa should be thrown to the CELL rite away and let deal with pack of hungry wolves. That's ridiculous. And same goes with O'Neal... who in the world confronted him?? yeah... there were few fans on the court. And they are not supposed to be (I expect more severe charges to be filed against them since they were on agrresive mood also) there. But again... what a Gay/faggot/sonofabitch.... to throw a cheap punch on someone who is already on the floor and not even aware of o'Neal's position. If he was a real man.. F***K why can't he try confront Walllace (Ben/Rasheed)... that nigga was just trying to bring out his thug behaviors on the court. I wish someone had knocked that bastard right there for throwing such a cheap punch. He could have acted like the middle man there not as an aggressor. continued....