Shams: Oladipo to Houston for Levert in Harden trade (Deal Complete)

[Wizop]

Jackson boxing escalated too.

Sent from my phone.

[Scoot McGroot]

I also thought the main catalyst was Ben Wallace throwing his towel at Ron on the scorer’s table. If I recall, the beer was tossed almost immediately after.

[Tom White]

Tom I agree it could have been so different if Artest was corralled by the assistants over to the bench while the refs sorted things out.

I don't put that on the assistants. I put that responsibility on Carlisle. He was the head coach. The leader. It may have been the one big fail of his time here.

[Tom White]

Jackson boxing escalated too.

Sent from my phone.

Jackson should have been jettisoned the next day. I don't care if the team had to just eat his contract. He was a problem, period.

[pacers33granger]

We can play the hindsight game all day long, but Ben Wallace was the first person wrong in the situation. The fan(s) were the second, Ron and Jackson were the third, and it snowballed from there. There's a lot of woulda/coulda/shoulda, but the jerks in the situation were all fully grown adults. I don't put anything on the staff.

Really, if you want to blame someone for not recognizing the situation was getting out of hand and calming it, you should be blaming the refs. Then again, that game was one of the primary catalysts for the shift in how the game is called.