| Simply Embarrassing Authored by Andrew Perna - October 8, 2006 - 1:58 pm
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That was until I awoke Friday morning to the news of the latest Pacer mishap. You all know the story by now – four Pacers were involved in an altercation outside an Indianapolis strip club in the wee hours of Friday morning. Stephen Jackson was in the middle of it all, reportedly getting punched in the mouth and hit with a moving vehicle before firing his 9 mm pistol.
While I hope that what Jackson did doesn’t bring any charges against any of the four players, it doesn’t really matter as far as I’m concerned. The damage has been done, and I’m officially embarrassed to be a fan of the Pacers.
The players had no business being at the club that late with training camp underway. Larry Bird said behavior like this wouldn’t be tolerated when he spoke to the media back in May, and these types of poor decisions are exactly what he was hinting towards. My policy regarding my support of Pacer players has always been lenient. If they suited up and wanted to be a part of the team, then they were okay in my book.
I remained a Ron Artest fan throughout the brawl aftermath, and defended him on a weekly basis. It was only after Artest demanded a trade that I hopped off his bandwagon. If you’re a Pacer you have my support, it’s that simple. Some fans love their team but despise individual players, blaming them for losses and placing all blame on them for the team’s struggles. That’s not my style, and I never thought it would be.
Unfortunately, with the Pacers giving the Blazers a run for their money in the race to be the NBA’s most unlawful franchise I’m finding it hard to root for some of them.
I’m sure it happens often and a majority of players do it, but no one that’s dedicated to their team should be out that late the night before practice. That alone infuriates a basketball fundamentalist like me, and the rest of the hullabaloo only makes it harder to swallow. I’ll never understand why guys who have risen up and made it out of the rough and tough ghettos they grew up in continue to hold onto ghetto-like behaviors.
Jackson, Jamaal Tinsley, and Marquis Daniels are big men, who seem more than capable of holding their own if need be. If they didn’t feel safe in that area of Indianapolis they could have brought a few burly bodyguards rather than packing heat. And if they really felt the need to carry a weapon to a strip club, maybe that’s not the right crowd for millionaire professional basketball players to be mingling with.
The Pacers campaign for the upcoming season is about restoring a respectable image to a franchise that was once the picture of good citizenship. It’s sad enough that a team had to market that way, but it’s even more depressing that before the season has even begun their image has worsened.
My girlfriend of three years is well-aware that my intentions of fatherhood include raising a boy who loves the Pacers just as much as his father. But when she heard news of the events outside Club Rio on Friday morning she posed this question to me, “Do you really want your kids rooting for a team like this?”
Now fatherhood is still years away for me, and the Pacers could turn the franchise around by then, but her question made me think. Is she right? I don’t just want to root for players who perform well on the court, but I want guys who perform just as honorably in the real world. What happened to my Pacers?
Surely it wasn’t just the volcano known as Ron Artest. He’s long gone and the childlike behavior remains. Does Jackson need to be shipped out of town? Will that help the team’s image?
Jackson seems like the one in the middle of the controversy and it’s not like he has been void of drama during his stay in Indiana. Were Tinsley, Daniels and Snap Hunter victims of Jackson’s poor judgment or are they immature as well? Larry Bird will have to sit back and take a long look at the character of these four men. Unfortunately the new root of the problem, Stephen Jackson, has seen his trade value diminish each and every time his name comes up in talks.
My good friend Asher and I were discussing the incident Friday afternoon and he admitted that he was having serious thoughts about his status as a Pacer supporter. He, like my girlfriend, was unsure that he wanted to follow a team with the poor reputation that the Pacers possess. It’s sad, but understandable. What’s worse is that I have spent the last four years bringing him over to the Pacers after being a fan of the Celtics.
Jackson was called a ‘thug’ after his actions at The Palace of Auburn Hills. His defense was a good one, he was Artest’s teammates and he’ll do anything for the guys on his team. It sounded heroic and is probably true, but Stephen must also act like he cares about the team as a whole. What he did Friday morning, whether he’s cleared by self defense or not, was not in the best interest of the team.
A quiet night at home with the kids during training camp would have been more acceptable, or maybe even if he had left the club earlier, or been in a better section of town. Now Jackson will be mentioned in trade rumors once again, and I’ll have to decide whether or not he’ll become the first active Pacer I’ve ever rooted against (Artest didn’t suit up after his trade demands led me to abandon his bandwagon).
Using the defense of being in the wrong place at the wrong time (like Detroit) is getting old and I’m tired of sticking up for him. I want to believe that Stephen is a good guy, who happens to make poor decisions, but enough is enough.
All I can say is thank God Jermaine wasn’t there…
Do you think I’m being too hard on Jackson? Tell me – Andrew.Perna@RealGM.com |
