Tuesday, November 23, 2004
Basketball vs Violence
You know, I’m not surprised about this fight between fans and players. I’m surprised it hasn’t happened sooner! In every sport in the world, there’s a separation of the players from the fans. But in basketball, they’ve got the fans RIGHT THERE on the court. Given that fans are impassioned (fan being short for ‘fanatic’), the fact that there haven’t been more incidents is the real surprise.
So why did it happen this time and never before? Surely that wasn’t the first incident of a hometown fan assaulting a visiting player. Surely these aren’t the first players who are tightly wound impassioned athletes open to the smallest provocation.
Was it a security lapse? I don’t know enough about the situation to comment one way or the other. Certainly a lack of previous instances means that security has always been fantastic, was this simply a new level that they weren’t prepared for? Or do years of relative calm take the edge off of security?
Or is greed the root of this problem? As I understand it, a night out at a basketball game might buy you a small Korean car. If I’m spending that much at a game, I’m going to expect a certain level of return. Frustration for not getting value would certainly escalate over time. Further, if the costs of a game are going up, surely it’s linked with player salaries. Players may feel that by earning a premium amount of money should make them immune from things, like being assaulted. Fans are expecting more, players are expecting more; there isn’t enough ‘more’ to go around. In any society, that always leads to violence.
¶ 1:50 PM
So why did it happen this time and never before? Surely that wasn’t the first incident of a hometown fan assaulting a visiting player. Surely these aren’t the first players who are tightly wound impassioned athletes open to the smallest provocation.
Was it a security lapse? I don’t know enough about the situation to comment one way or the other. Certainly a lack of previous instances means that security has always been fantastic, was this simply a new level that they weren’t prepared for? Or do years of relative calm take the edge off of security?
Or is greed the root of this problem? As I understand it, a night out at a basketball game might buy you a small Korean car. If I’m spending that much at a game, I’m going to expect a certain level of return. Frustration for not getting value would certainly escalate over time. Further, if the costs of a game are going up, surely it’s linked with player salaries. Players may feel that by earning a premium amount of money should make them immune from things, like being assaulted. Fans are expecting more, players are expecting more; there isn’t enough ‘more’ to go around. In any society, that always leads to violence.
¶ 1:50 PM
