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We’ll start with an unpopular opinion: Ron Artest isn’t to blame for the Malice at the Palace.

* As Bill Waton on the replay, it wasn’t that hard of a foul on Ben Wallace. Clearly, Wallace overreacted.

* Was Artest foolish to lie down on the scorer’s table? Yes. Would he have had a beer thrown at him if he were sitting in a chair or just standing up? Perhaps. But the overall point is that he had distanced himself from the initial altercation.

* We still believe that if that idiot fan doesn’t throw the beer, the rumble never happens.

* And before you counter with, “Artest needs to control his emotion there…” think back to your last athletic endeavor, and then toss in a near-fight … and then think what you might have done if some asshole hurled a beer at you. Was Artest wrong to go in the stands? Of course. But in the heat-of-the-moment, the guess here is that many more athletes/humans might have done the same thing.

* Stephen Jackson is, and always has been, a hot-headed jackass.

* Jermaine O’Neal threw the best punch in the arena that night.

* Best line of the night? Bill Walton’s, “This is a disgrace.”

The Brawl: Were lessons learned? [ESPN]

* Sorry the video is such poor quality, but it seems as if the NBA has scrubbed most of them off YouTube.