Meanwhile...
Unless you don't listen to the news, you probably already know about the NBA fiasco Friday night at Detroit between the Pacers and the Pistons.
For most of us who don't have jobs as LEOs, prison guards, or soldiers, we need to behave lest we have society ding us for some pretty useless crap. Sigh... Always some boss and/or f-ing lawyer trying to take all the fun out of life.
It all started when Ben Wallace of the Piston shoved Ron Artest of the Pacers. That's pretty common when you have a game where some degree of banging is involved, and you have world class athletes competing against each other. Sometimes a shove turns into a swing. And sometimes a swing turns into a fight. And sometimes...
OK, so now we have some big boys in a brawl. Fine... Good thing basketball players can't fight their way out of a wet paper bag...
And good thing they don't play with hockey sticks... 
What made this situation unique though was the fan involvement.
It starts with the fact that the fans are considered the "sixth man" on the floor for the home team. Verbally abusing the away team is part of the game. Fine... But sometimes rabid fans and alcohol don't mix very well. Next thing you know...
In this case, a (stupid) fan pelted Ron Artest with a plastic cup. Want to throw something at a pissed-off seven footer? Be my guest...
Players are supposed to "take it", and security is supposed to deal with the offenders. But that doesn't always happen. By Ron Artest's account, this was the third time someone had thrown something at him in a game, and nothing was done about it. The result? Ron Artest violated an unspoken rule. He actually went into the stands in pursuit of his attacker.
Understand that this is no choir boy. Ron allegedly has a split personality. Those that know him off the court speak of his gentle demeanor. But on the court? He's already been slapped with multiple suspensions, and forced to take ... ahem ..."anger management classes." Hmm... Maybe he should get his money back on the therapy.
By the end of it all, we saw beer, cups, popcorn, and other debris being thrown everywhere from the stands. We saw fans on the floor attempting to take on opposing players. Once again, good thing basketball players don't know how to punch. You've got to believe that a seven footer could pack a nasty whallop if he knew what he was doing.
And this all brings me to an observation. It seems to me that there's a bit of a syndrome that happens in life. I like to call it the "Big Dog Syndrome." When I had my medium-sized dog, nobody seemed to bother her much. But when I started owning and walking Great Danes, I noticed that they would attract these small to medium-sized yappy dogs that liked to raise a fuss and challenge my beast. It seemed very stupid but... Generally they got away with it because it was difficult to explain to Mrs. Smith why Brandon ate her Fifi.
I once had a 325 pound student who seemed like such a gentle giant. He actually was one of the more dangerous people I ever trained. It was such a joy learning to work with him and learning how not to get crushed... This guy was the most coordinated sumo of a man I've had the pleasure to work with.
Tony spoke to me of a problem he had when going out. Somehow there was often some dick in the crowd who wanted to take him on. Tony generally was affable, and usually was able to blow the person off. But sometimes... This was one reason Tony wanted to train. He wanted efficient ways to control people without actually having to squash them. Go figure...a problem most folks don't have.
Back to the NBA...
Commisioner Stern came down really hard on 4 of the players involved in the brawl. Oddly enough, the start of it all (from Detroit) didn't get much of a punishment. C'est la guerre; it always seems that way. Meanwhile, we have these rabid, drunk fans that seem to feel they have a license to throw crap at NBA players, and find some f-ing lawyer to sue them out of their millions when they fight back.
The way I figure it, if you're going to hit one of these A-holes, you'd better get your money's worth. Meanwhile, it seems the big boys just need to learn to take the abuse.
- Bill
)
Some of these guys playing bball are kind of big, I think I'd throw the guy in the next seat at them and run. 
