Perhaps Ron Artest of the Indiana Pacers will get the hint, now that he has been suspended for the remainder of the season and will forfeit about $5 million of his more than $6 million annual salary.
Artest leaped into the stands Friday night in a hotly contested game against the Detroit Pistons after having a cup of beer thrown at him.
The resulting melee is now among the more infamous in recent sports history.
The outcome, Artest suspended for an entire season, several other players out from five to 25 games.
We don?t condone the outrageous actions of the fans, some of whom deserve to face legal penalties for how they conducted themselves, but player involvement in this was abysmal.
Ultimately, it is the consumer who has allowed this superstar attitude to prevail.
There are few 20-year-old kids, many of whom come from extremely poor families, who can leap into the high-pressure world of big league sports, complete with astronomical paychecks and make the right choices.
Flashy cars, jewelry, estates the size of small countries and a high-rolling lifestyle catch up with far too many of today?s pro athletes. It often ends with substance abuse and careers that are cut short by excesses.
For children present at Friday?s game, reality was far too real. We are ashamed that they were subject to such behavior by supposed adults.
Fans need to send a message that it?s time to pull in the reigns on pro sports.
Quit buying $300 shoes endorsed by a superstar.
Quit paying hundreds or even thousands of dollars for a ticket.
Quit saying it?s OK for a superstar player to behave like a child or to be arrested over and over again for drug possession, assault or rape.
Of course, all of this starts at home, on our playgrounds, our youth league teams, our high school teams and our college teams.
Ron Artest?s issues didn?t begin the day he entered the NBA. They started long ago on a playground where he learned that because he could dunk a basketball, he could be treated differently than those around him.
We enjoy so much about sports, watching a child swing a bat at a slowly moving ball…and miss and miss and miss until one day, pow…sweet success.
Seeing the joy on a child?s face when he or she scores a run, goal or point.
The lessons learned from both winning and especially losing.
The will to win that carries on into adulthood when life doesn?t deal us a good hand.
There are many beautiful things in our great world, but perhaps none as beautiful as watching the pure human emotion and dynamics of the 100 meter dash during the Olympics. In slow motion, the athlete?s muscles rippling, the human body at its finest moment.
All pro sports franchises should take heed at Friday?s incident and clean up their act without being shoved into a corner by the fans and before their house of cards crumbles under its own weight.
A.P.