That Basketball Brawl
I've watched the tapes, listened to the talking heads, heard opinions from both sides and came to the same conclusion others have:

The NBA and the players are handling this all wrong.

First off, the NBA is planning to go after all the fans involved in the ruckus, charging even the guys spilling beer on the players afterward, and those suckerpunched on the floor of the gym.

Were they watching the same game? Did they not see who charged into the fans and started wildly swinging on fans? And in Detroit? The place where more people have violently died than in Northern Ireland during a similar period in the 'troubles'?
The fans are tiny, little out of shape people, compared to these massive athletes, and they were physically assaulted. Some of them with zero provocation at all. And that one tiny little guy in the black shirt was assaulted twice! And he had nothing to do with the 'beer throwing'.

And is a beer in the face really cause to cause a riot in the stands? And the players didn't care. They rushed right in there throwing punches.....not caring that all the innocent fans were behaving or that there were small children present and were in physical danger due to stampeding or attack. These are careless actions by overgrown, (heh) mouth-breathing idiots.

Now as much as I dislike what the NHL players have done in their lockout, they are always gracious in interviews (boring, but polite and diplomatic), giving to fans, and generally well behaved (save for the on ice stuff, but that is okay). Can you imagine an NHL star attacking fans in the stands? Okay, imagine they didn't have heavy equipment. Why are football and basketball players so frickin' arrogant?

Anyways, I'm siding with the fans on this one. One idiot who sends a beer at a player is not grounds for full litigation, a panic inducing riot and considerable injury to several parties.

And if they NBA wants to shoot itself in the foot by going after the fans, they are about as stupid as O'Neal, Jackson and Ortest.