November 25, 2014
The Passion of Sports Fans Can Lead to Violence … But Only If You Let It
The following is a feature by The Shadow League’s Yussuf Khan:
Wednesday was the 10-year anniversary of the “Malice at the Palace†and I still feel the same way as when I first watched it happening live in my living room, jumping around and yelling for the entire neighborhood to hear.
Ron Artest was in the right.
Yes, I said it; Artest was in the right for running after the fan that STARTED the “Maliceâ€Â and so were his teammates who rushed to his defense in the stands.
The passion of sports fans can sometimes lead to the violation of the boundary that exists between fan and athlete. They might be millionaires who play for their favorite team, but these athletes are grown men who do grown men things. The Pacers that ran up into the stands to defend their teammate were displaying what we are taught as young athletes; you have your teammate’s back. So by going in the stands to protect Artest, they were simply adhering to the lessons that are instilled at a young age in sports. I’m sure some of you are reading this and complaining about how wrong my viewpoint is and that athletes need to control themselves, so I will rationalize.