Fans of basketball's Detroit Pistons cemented their reputation as The Worst Fans in America Friday. Their team down 15 points in the final 46 seconds of the game, they rallied their hometown spirit by pelting the visiting Indiana Pacers with beer and other concession-stand comestibles. All hell broke loose. At least two Pacers jumped the barricades and carried the fight into the stands, while fans likewise took to the floor to trade punches with marquee players. Officials were helpless, security was overwhelmed, and those players who chose not to mix it up simply stood frozen with their mouths agape. It was all staff could do to get the players down the tunnel while beer and ice poured down from above.
Anyone who had access to a microphone declared they'd never seen anything like it. Yes, we know all about soccer riots, but there's no such thing as a basketball riot. It's not the basketball way.
The sad part is that Indiana will wind up suffering most, its team decimated by sanctions for its part in the riot.
Detroit has ballyhooed its bad-boy reputation since its championship days in the late '80s. I didn't like it. Nobody liked it. We loved to hate those Pistons. But last season, as Detroit nearly swept my formerly-beloved Lakers on the way to the Championship, I found myself actually rooting for them. I wondered where the hate had gone.
Ah! Here it is.
I hope you rot in the Eastern Conference basement for another 15 years, you Rust Belt punks.
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