Making a Play to the Fans

NBA Commissioner David Stern’s big-time suspensions of three spectator-battering Indiana Pacers sent a message. Not to the players, to the fans.

We need you. We can’t afford to lose you anymore than we already have.

The severity of punishments delivered to Ron Artest (out for the rest of the season), Stephen Jackson (30 games) and Jermaine O’Neal (25 games) for their behavior in the brawl near the end of their game at Detroit on Friday night is Stern’s way of persuading the ticket-buying masses to come back to a sport that has fallen out of favor.

If his punishment for Latrell Sprewell attacking his coach was suspension for a full calendar year (later reduced to the rest of the season after the players’ union appealed), Stern had to show he takes an assault on fans just as seriously.

He knows the league’s hurting. He can read the TV ratings. Even worse, he gets the daily news clips, increasingly filled with ill-advised behavior and outrageous quotes from his players. The league’s marquee franchise, the Lakers, imploded from an overabundance of egos. One of its brightest stars was just booed at an awards show, and still has to contend with a civil suit stemming from a sexual encounter two summers ago. Now its defending champion was a part of the Friday melee.

“From everything that’s coming out, the NBA is really hurting for image right now,” said Chicago Bull forward Antonio Davis. “You look at all the sports out there -- NASCAR, baseball, any sport you can name -- you’re going to find us at the bottom as far as fans being receptive to us.”

So Stern tried to make up for it with swift and decisive action, accompanied by strong language.

He said the players’ conduct “wildly exceeded the professionalism and self-control that should fairly be expected from NBA players.”

He added: “We must affirm that the NBA will strive to exemplify the best that can be offered by professional sports and not allow our sports to be debased by what seem to be declining expectations for the behavior of players and fans alike.”

Yes, the fans in the Palace of Auburn Hills who threw cups and even a chair at the Pacers were every bit as wrong. But Stern can’t make an example of them. So he’ll flex his muscles where he can.

“I know how much the commissioner cares about this league,” Laker Coach Rudy Tomjanovich said. “It’s such a gem. He’s going to protect it. I’m all for that.”

In addition to the inadequate security, there was a crucial lack of perspective Friday night.

My friend Tony called from Texas sometime between the 10th and 15th times the replays were shown and made the most relevant point yet: None of these players faced anywhere near the hateful abuse showered on Jackie Robinson in his rookie year with the Brooklyn Dodgers, and Robinson never retaliated.

Robinson knew if he acted out then it could keep a whole generation of black players out of baseball. He tucked his pride in his pocket and absorbed all the attacks in the name of something greater.

Artest didn’t think that way. From a base reaction, I understand why Artest ran into the stands. He was minding his own business, having retreated to the scorer’s table after Detroit’s Ben Wallace shoved him to retaliate for a hard foul by Artest.

Someone tossed a beverage cup at Artest and hit him. Then he was off, attacking a fan, and Jackson was in the stands, swinging away as well. Later, both Artest and O’Neal decked fans on the court.

Artest reacted much the same way you or I probably would if we were attacked.

The difference is, we don’t have a multibillion-dollar business to uphold. That’s the responsibility of every player in this league. It’s much more important than making sure their manhood goes unchallenged.

The reason the league flourished in the 1980s and ‘90s wasn’t just because of the brilliance Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan displayed on the court.

They also went out of their way to promote the game and to protect its legacy.

Nowadays you hear players such as Artest talking about the need for time off to promote an R&B; album, or Sprewell complaining that his $14-million salary is insufficient to feed his family.

“I think that’s what our image has become,” said Davis, a 12-year veteran. “A bunch of young guys who are really not understanding what it is to play in the NBA, what it means to put that uniform on, what it means to be in front of thousands and thousands of people who love what you do, what it means to make a living playing the game of basketball. They’re not thinking about that.”

To Davis, this is all a result of players entering the league straight from high school or after the briefest pit stop in college. Essentially, these are their college years, the times when they’re prone to bad judgment.

He makes a good point. The college years are when you’re supposed to be self-centered. But they’re living those years in the NBA while making the type of money that demands responsibility. And the NBA still charges admission to watch them go through the process.

Artest just turned 25, still in that window of immaturity Davis described, still at an age when I know I did stupid things.

“You go back to being 19, 20 or 21,” Davis said. “Being in this position, I don’t think that would be your first inclination, to think about the sport, what people did before you, what people had to do to sacrifice for you to be a free agent, for you to come out of high school, for you to do all of those things. They think it was just there.”

So if the players won’t think that broadly, Stern put it in terms they will understand: Artest’s outburst stands to cost him the bulk of his $6-million salary. That’s pricey.

It remains to be seen if the fans will buy it.

J.A. Adande can be reached at j.a.adande@latimes.com To read previous columns by Adande, go to latimes.com/Adande.

*

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Past suspensions

Longest NBA suspensions for on-court incidents before penalties were handed out Sunday for Friday’s Detroit-Indiana brawl:

* 68 games: Latrell Sprewell, Golden State Warriors, after “physically assaulting” Coach P.J. Carlesimo at a practice, Dec. 4, 1997. Arbitrator John Feerick overturned the Warriors’ termination of Sprewell’s contract and reduced his one-year suspension by five months, ending July 1.

* 26 games: Kermit Washington, Lakers, (60 days) for punching Houston’s Rudy Tomjanovich, 1977.

* 11 games: Dennis Rodman, Chicago Bulls, for kicking a courtside television photographer, Jan. 17, 1997.

* 10 games: Vernon Maxwell, Houston Rockets, for going into the stands and hitting a fan in Portland, Feb. 6, 1995.

* 7 games: Nick Van Exel, Lakers, for shoving a referee, April 9, 1996.

* 6 games: Dennis Rodman, Chicago Bulls, for head-butting a referee, March 18, 1996.