The biggest NBA scandal of the young season is the incident the other night in which New York Knick Antonio Davis entered the stands at the home arena of his former team, the Chicago Bulls, in order to "protect" his wife from a fan who was supposedly threatening her. Davis was suspended by the league today for five games.
I don't really have an opinion on this; I wasn't there, and only briefly saw the footage on TV. But I'm intrigued by this Deadspin analysis, including eyewitness reports that it was Mrs. Davis who started the altercation, because she was upset that a fan behind her was rooting loudly for the Bulls. (Rooting for the Bulls at the Bulls' arena? How dare he!)
Meanwhile, the abominable Jay Mariotti in his Chicago Sun-Times column blames the incident, as always, on "an arena filled with fans who have been drinking for hours." Please. I covered a high school basketball game tonight for my day-job paper, where of course no alcohol was served, and the fans of both teams showed the type of behavior that I'm used to seeing at professional and college events. One team's cheering section turned their backs en masse to the opposing team during player introductions and shouted "sucks" after every name; the other team's fans spewed vulgar invective at their foes throughout the contest, even though the first school's principal- a nun- was seated directly in front of them. Nice to see the "Philly sports attitude" has extended to far-flung suburban high schools.
Meanwhile, Scoop Jackson defends Davis. Of course he does. When was the last time Jackson criticized any sports figure for anything, other than racism?
Posted by Stephen Silver at January 20, 2006 12:58 AM