It was no “Malice at the Palace,” but last night’s incident involving Marcus Smart has been getting a lot of media attention since it happened.  The Malice At The Palace happened on November 19th, 2004 in Detroit in a game involving the Indiana Pacers vs. Detroit Pistons.  Fans threw things at Ron Artest (Metta World Peace now) and Artest went into the crowd and started a major brawl involving several fans and players.

This ugly incident has been the go to any time something happens between a player and a since since that fateful night in Detroit.  Last night’s incident involving Marcus Smart was not as bad as that clip.

At this time, it is not known what the Texas Tech fan said or did to provoke Marcus Smart.  What is known is that the man is a “superfan” of the Texas Tech program that drives the 375 miles from Waco, Texas to Lubbock, Texas for every Red Raiders home game.  It is also known that the fan has a history of heckling players and has even been caught on video flipping the bird at opposing players and trying to rile up players.  So in other words, he is a grown man that gets his rocks off by being a douchebag and heckling 18 and 19 year old kids.  You can see that he immediately takes a defensive stance like he fully expected Marcus Smart to hit him as he comes toward him.  That leads me to believe that he said something pretty reprehensible if his instincts were to think a punch was coming.  I find the woman next to him to be almost as bad as the man that got shoved.  Pointing her finger and talking smack right along with the guy and then immediately acting shocked and defiantly pointing after Smart shoved the guy.  Provoke someone.  Act like a dirtbag and a punk.  Be a horrible human being.  Then get immediately outraged when someone retaliates.  Yep, sounds like the culture we live in right down to a T.

Marcus Smart was called for a technical foul for the incident and the broadcasters for ESPN U were quick to say things like “reprehensible act” and “inexcusable” to describe what Marcus Smart did.  Having been an entertainer for 12 years in professional wrestling (mostly as a bad guy), I have heard fans say some downright nasty things.  I have seen fans behave in deplorable ways.  I have seen actions that if done anywhere else in the world other than a sporting event would have landed the fan in jail.  I have no idea what happened in the Marcus Smart incident.  I wasn’t there.  I’ve just seen the same 10 second clip that most everyone else has seen.  With what I have seen and what I have experienced in my lifetime, I will not rush to judgment on Smart.

I do not agree with “the customer is always right.”  The customer is wrong a lot.  The customer is a jerk in many instances.  If you cannot tell me a legit reason why you are right other than “the customer is always right,” then that tells me you are wrong and you know it.  Same goes with pleading the 5th on trial.  The fifth amendment gives you the right to NOT incriminate yourself.  If you aren’t guilty or didn’t do something wrong, then how are you going to incriminate yourself?  When I hear someone plead the fifth, I automatically know they are guilty of something.  This plays into the “a fan bought a ticket and has the right to say or do whatever they want.”  Horsecrap.  I don’t believe that BS for a second.  A fan bought a ticket.  Big deal.  That fan should still have to act like a civilized member of society.  That fan should still have to behave with a certain decorum that would be expected of any other human being in real life.  If you don’t want to get shoved, don’t act like a dirtbag and provoke people.  Is it too much to ask for a person to attend a sporting event and act like a decent human being?  Cheer.  Clap.  Watch the game.  Yell “boo” or even “you suck” at a player on the other team.  If this fan was just doing that and Marcus Smart went off the deep end, then he should be suspended for the rest of the year.  If you can’t take a “you suck” then you definitely don’t need to be playing sports.  However, if this fan that drives 800 miles to watch a crap basketball team was being a vulgar racist asshole, then he deserved to be shoved and shouldn’t be allowed to attend any more games and nothing extra should happen to Marcus Smart.

Either way, this is going to negatively impact this kid’s future.  He was a certain Top 4 or 5 draft pick and future franchise player.  Now he has a dark cloud hanging over his head that could cause his draft position to plummet.  This has a huge monetary effect on his future.  It also hurts him when it comes to trying to get endorsement deals in the future.  What company is going to want a “hothead” that “attacks fans” being the face on their advertising?  All because some jackbag adult might have used racial slurs etc to agitate and provoke a reaction from a teenager.