No Artests in PBA, please

Basketball is an emotional and physical game. That’s why it’s vital for players and fans alike to check their tempers in the heat of the action.

Let’s face it. Some fans purposely heckle players to disrupt their focus, to take away their concentration. It’s something players must live with. However, when fans get out of control, the arena security must step in. In the NBA, there are guidelines for fan behavior. If a fan goes out of line by screaming invectives and profanities, he’ll be escorted out of the stadium for good.

The difficult thing is where to draw the line, when the guards should intervene. It’s normal for fans to cheer and jeer. That’s part of the game. If you muzzle fans, you take away a lot of the fun of watching a game live. So the guards really must know when precisely to move in to avoid an explosive situation. When a fan gets an athlete’s attention and is clearly out to get his goat, the guards should step in immediately. When there is abuse of freedom of speech or expression, the fan must be answerable to the consequences of his or her impudence.

As for athletes, there’s no excuse for charging into the stands and confronting a heckler. They should know better than to let their emotions go. Athletes, of course, are highly vulnerable to explode emotionally since they’re involved in the heat of a game. But that’s no reason for them to lose control of themselves.

In the NBA, league officials don’t pussy-foot when it comes to cracking down on players assaulting fans. The NBA knows it’s a league responsibility to protect the paying public from “wild” players. Fans, after all, pay good money to watch NBA games and every league must safeguard the public welfare.

In 1995, Houston Rockets guard Vernon Maxwell was suspended 10 games and fined $20,000 for punching a heckling fan in the stands. That same year, two Class AA minor league baseball players from the Arkansas Travelers were banned indefinitely for attacking fans cheering for the Wichita Wranglers. Dmitri Young, 22, punched a fan and Keith Jones, 24, hit another in the back with a bat.

In 2004, the NBA lowered the boom on nine players who brawled with fans during a tumultuous game between the Detroit Pistons and the Indiana Pacers. Ron Artest, now playing for the Los Angeles Lakers, was suspended the rest of the season or 72 games and threw away about $5 million in salary for his role in the fray. In all, nine players were suspended for a combined 143 games. Stephen Jackson was sidelined for 30 games and Jermaine O’Neal for 25.

Only last week, police arrested a Serbian football player Nebojsa Joksimovic, 28, for assaulting a 53-year-old fan in Belgrade. Joksimovic was obviously upset by his team Cukaricki’s 2-0 loss to Jagodina and the fan riled him up after the match. The fan was treated for facial injuries.

Belgrade police now carefully monitors sports-related violence off the playing court after a French fan Brice Titon died from injuries sustained in an attack by hooligans after a football game. The hooligans were fans from an opposing team.

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Fans aren’t the only victims of sports violence. In Sydney, two fans attacked football player Robbie Middleby in a car park after a match last January. The fans were infuriated by Middleby’s decision to leave the Sydney team for North Queensland.

In the PBA last season, Marlou Aquino and Danny Ildefonso were involved in separate incidents where they attacked hecklers. Ildefonso was joined by former San Miguel teammate Marc Pingris in barging into the stands after a game.

And only last Friday, Burger King’s Wynne Arboleda just couldn’t restrain himself from attacking a heckler Alain Katigbak after the “Snatcher” was ejected in the second quarter of a game against Smart-Gilas.

Arboleda is known as a rugged “enforcer” and a tough defender. When he tries to stop a player from scoring, Arboleda makes him feel it. He backs down from no one and has a reputation of being a roughhouser. But for Arboleda, playing physical is part of the game because basketball, after all, is a contact sport. He shouldn’t be chastised for playing physical. If he plays dirty, that’s another issue.

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Alaska team owner Fred Uytengsu came out strongly against hooliganism on and off the court in a text message yesterday. “If the PBA does not ban Arboleda for at least one conference, it will mean they condone hooliganism and violence,” he said. “They only have to look at the Artest case in the NBA.”

With the PBA season just a week old, league officials must clearly set the tone at the onset that players barging into the stands to assault fans will not be tolerated, that anyone – star or benchwarmer – crossing the line will be dealt with severely. Unluckily for Arboleda, he could be the example the PBA might use to show it means business.

At the same time, the PBA must issue clear-cut guidelines on fan behavior and when the arena security will eject an unruly heckler without taking away the fun and flavor of cheering and jeering in the gallery. The PBA shouldn’t only protect the fans but also its players. You don’t want a situation where a player could be assaulted by fans like Middleby was.

Smart-Gilas will no doubt be given the “physical” treatment by PBA veterans. That’s part of the “initiation” process, the so-called baptism of fire. The old pros will try to show the new kids on the block who’s boss on the court. For sure, the Smart-Gilas youngsters are in for some rough sailing. They’ll get bruised, shoved and pushed around. But that’s a key element in the learning process. They’ve got to stand up, fight and prove they’re made of stern stuff. The road to the London Olympics is an uphill climb and it won’t be easy negotiating the route. The PBA players are just reminding coach Rajko Toroman’s boys they’ve still got a lot of rice to eat and bumps to endure.