http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1122-30.htm....
What this approach ignores, including logic, is the opportunity to confront a new phenomenon in US sports: the simmering animosity between ticket holding (emphasis on ticket holding) fans and the players. Here, whether Stern and the NBA brass want to discuss it or not, we have a mulligan stew of race, class and grievance that says a great deal about the uneasy place of pro sports in US society. First, as columnist Jason Whitlock commented after the brawl, "Many fans love the sport but just hate pro athletes." Athletes in the eyes of many fans are too spoiled, too loud, too "hip-hop" too tattooed, too corn-rowed - all of which translates to players as "too black."
Also in this era of fantasy leagues, yipping high testosterone sports radio, high-ticket prices, and league sponsored EA sports video games that wallow in computerized bench-clearing brawls, fans more than ever see themselves as participants and not observers (the EA sports slogan actually is "get in the game"). Those fans in Detroit, $50 ticket in hand, believe they have more than the right - they have the duty -to throw punches at opposing players if the opportunity presents itself. One striking scene from the Auburn Hills fight was when a man clearly on the gray side of forty, appears to be pulling at Artest to break up the fight, and then throws three straight rabbit punches to the back of the 6' 8 inch forward's head.
This man also happened to be white, which is the other side of the fan/athlete resentathon. NBA players the overwhelming majority of whom come from poor inner city backgrounds, don't look at the stands and think, "Hey! What a terrific group of 40-year-old white guys I'm going to be dunking for this evening!" As one player said to me, "I look at the seats and don't see anyone from my old hood or anybody that looks anything like me. It's like you're a monkey in a cage." So we have angry white fans trying to punch out angry black players with the players returning the favor. This animosity is very real and not going anywhere.
This violence is also heated by the bloodshed engulfing US society - not street violence, but the state-sanctioned variety. ESPN has replayed the "horror" of the fight ad nauseum, in black and white, with all kinds of slo-motion angles. They have reveled in this fight and crying all the way to the ratings bank. But as the "World Wide Leader" cries over the punches thrown, remember that this is also a network that did a week of Sports Centers in Kuwait, on a set made up to look like a machine gun nest. Ask people in Falluja what violence really looks like, and the role a network like ESPN plays in promoting the acceptance of such violence. An NBA player's union rep quite correctly tried to give some perspective to the brawl, commenting that "Yes it was violent. But there is violence everywhere. There is violence in war." This is a thoughtful comment with at least a modicum of perspective. He will probably be fired.
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