Glad to see these were just early/preliminary numbers from the AP, and that the final verdict was even more stiff. Just watched Commissioner Stern's press conference:
Artest: See ya' in 2005/06. Suspended the rest of the season (73 games)
Stephen Jackson - 30 games
Jermaine O'Neal - 25 games
Ben Wallace - 6 games (too harsh, should be 2-3 games only)
Other random Pacers guard - 5 games
Several other minor suspensions for leaving the bench - 1 game each (Billups, Campbell, Coleman, R. Miller)
And the great thing is that these suspensions aren't even staggered. Pacers may not even make the playoffs this season now, when they could've/should've had the #1 seed in the East. They'll probably still squeek in there, since it's the weakass East though. Devastating. Totally changes the landscape of the East now. Just Miama vs. Detroit now. Boring.
I'm sure the fans are gonna get their cummupins too, but it sounds like they're still working that out. I say at least take away their season tickets and/or ban them from attending games for a year.
I'd still love to see someone stick it to Jermaine with a serious lawsuit. Jail time would be icing on the cake. Apparently, beyond the one wild haymaker he connected on (with the running start) that we all saw, a cop said he saw O'Neal lay someone out in the tunnel too (off camera).