Illogic at its best Randy. As I said, it is one thing to defend yourself if the fan were fronting you off on your court, it is entirely another thing when someone takes a running start at a COMPLETELY DEFENSLESS human being who is being held from behind in a sitting position, that is pure, unadulterated, unprovoked, assault, nothing less, regardless of whether the idiot fan was on the court or not. By your criteria any fan on the court is fair game for whatever an NBA player feels he can do, by your criteria he could have pulled a knife or a gun on the cat because he is "fair game". And don't give me the fans have pulled knives at tennis matches comparison, this cat was NO THREAT WHATSOEVER TO ANYONE! He was being held by 2 men from behind for crying out loud! I suppose by that same criteria, in a melee like that, if a little girl wandered out onto the court, she therefore poses a threat and hey after all, she's now fair game, knock her teeth down her throat too!
I am not saying the fan was not wrong for stepping on the court, he absolutely was, and it is my understanding he is being charged, but O'Neal's action were no less horrific and unjustifiable than Artest going into the stands and therefore deserves the same level of punishment.
Nobody, and I do mean nobody, "DESERVES to get taken out, IMO, for being where he doesn't have a right to be." What they deserve is arrest, jail time, criminal charges filed against them, and banning them from the arena. And oh yes, let's include they deserve a punch in the nose if are attacking or threatening someone on the court by way of the player defending himself, but such was not the case here, O'Neal savagely and uprovokedly attacked a defensless human being, it was wrong, and it was criminal, period.
