Watching BDSSP last night, and everybody except Chris Rose was going to the mat for Artest in a serious way (John Sally, to his credit, suggested anger management classes for Artest, but still felt that the supension was too harsh). Tom Arnold's response to Rose's note that Artest went after the wrong guy?
"So you go after the wrong guy. So what? You go after Osama Bin Laden and you get Saddam Hussein."
The crowd, as they say, went wild. Tom Arnold is Tom Arnold, after all, can't help him with that one, but apparently there's a lot of Tom Arnolds. Score one for Coach Brown.
I fully agree, btw, that any and all fans involved in this should be fully prosecuted. But Artest's role as escalator must not be diminished and/or overlooked. Commisioner Stern's actions are wholly appropriate, I believe, and send a clear message to all players.
Now, all that remains is for the NBA to do an league-wide investigation of arena security forces, and take what ever steps need to be taken to see to it that as soon as a fan(s) pulls a stunt like that again, that his/her ass is out of ther, like, yesterday.