It appears the Indiana Pacers will pay a heavy price for Friday's embarrassing melee.
Ron Artest has been suspended for the season, while teammates Stephen Jackson received a 30-game suspension, and Jermaine O'Neal, a 25-game suspension, ESPN.com's Marc Stein and Insider Chad Ford have learned.
"The penalties issued today deal only with one aspect of this incident -- that of player misconduct. The actions of the players involved wildly exceeded the professionalism and self control that should rarely be accepted from NBA players," commissioner David Stern said in a statement Sunday.
The Detroit Pistons will be without Ben Wallace for six games.
Indiana's Anthony Johnson also received a five-game suspension.
Eldon Campbell, Chauncey Billups and Derrick Coleman, as the Pacers' Reggie Miller each received 1-game suspensions and $35,000 fines for leaving the bench following the initial altercation between Wallace and Artest.
"We must ... not allow our sport to be debased by what seems to be declining expectations for behavior by fans and athletes alike," Stern said in the statement.
Artest, O'Neal and Jackson -- who all threw punches at spectators in the stands or on the court at the end of the nationally televised Pacers-Pistons game -- began serving suspensions Saturday night when the league handed down indefinite bans until specific number of games could be decided upon.
The brawl was particularly violent, with Artest and Jackson bolting into the stands near center court and throwing punches at fans after debris was tossed at the players.
Later, fans who came onto the court were punched in the face by Artest and O'Neal.
Wallace began the fracas by delivering a hard, two-handed shove to Artest after Wallace was fouled on a drive to the basket with 45.9 seconds remaining. After the fight ended, the referees called off the remainder of the game. Pacers players were pelted with drinks, popcorn and other debris as they rushed to the locker room. The initial skirmish wasn't all that bad, with Artest retreating to the scorer's table and lying atop it after Wallace sent him reeling backward.
But when a fan tossed a cup at Artest, he stormed into the stands, throwing punches as he climbed over seats.
"He was on top of me, pummeling me," fan Mike Ryan of Clarkston said. "He asked me, 'Did you do it? I said, 'No, man. No!"'
Jackson joined Artest and threw punches at fans, who punched back. At one point, a chair was tossed into the fray.
Security personnel and ushers tried to break it up. Former Pistons player Rick Mahorn, who was seated courtside as a Detroit radio analyst, also stepped in.
Artest was benched for two games this month for asking Pacers coach Rick Carlisle for time off because of a busy schedule that included promoting a rap album.
Artest was suspended twice by the NBA last season, once for leaving the bench during a fracas at a Pacers-Celtics playoff game; the other for elbowing Portland's Derek Anderson. During the 2002-03 season, Artest was suspended five times by the NBA and once by the Pacers for a total of 12 games.
Artest also once grabbed a television camera and smashed it to the ground after a loss to the Knicks two years ago.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
They got what they deserved
Gonna be interesting to see what happens on the criminal side and the civil side
I definitely wanna see some stuff come down on the criminal side. I still don't know about all these suspensions though man. I don't know how reserved I would be athlete or not if I got hit in the grill with a cup of some dirtbags beer.
I don't know man I am real disappointed in the fans here, totally disgraced our town. I just hope the players aren'the only ones that pay for this crap. Nobody should be throwing anything ever!
MC
Of course the idiot who threw the beer needs to be punished criminally but all athletes know that you can't cross the line of going into the stands. Artest ended up swinging at the wrong guy and putting tons of innocent people in danger. The suspensions were well deserved.
Hi KB, thanks for the post!
I guess I am just a little biased because this is my hometown but I am way more pissed at the fans then even Artest. I would maybe expect something like this at a Wings game but never in a million years at the Palace.
The prosecutor is going after everyone but it looks like the only felony in the bunch is the guy that threw the chair who as of this morning they still haven't identified. Looks like low to mid level misdemeanors is all we will see out of this even for the players.
The Pistons did stay out of the stands which shows there was some self-control in all this mess but I still don't know how calm I would be if someone hit my in the face with a beer and I could see they were 5 feet from me.
MC
There did'nt seem to be even much beer in the cup it was basicly like he throw a paper cup at him. Maybe if they were in a club or out on the streets you'd fight em but could'nt Artest realize he was at a basketball game and would get in trouble, the fella is flat out stupid. When you watch it and he laying down on the table it was like he was just waiting for someone to say something or do something so he could run up in the stands after him.