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No. I say we send Shade out again to buy it.
Come on Shade, don't let Rat show you up again!
Come on Shade, don't let Rat show you up again!
The Rules of Pacers Digest
Hello everyone,
Whether your are a long standing forum member or whether you have just registered today, it's a good idea to read and review the rules below so that you have a very good idea of what to expect when you come to Pacers Digest.
A quick note to new members: Your posts will not immediately show up when you make them. An administrator has to approve at least your first post before the forum software will later upgrade your account to the status of a fully-registered member. This usually happens within a couple of hours or so after your post(s) is/are approved, so you may need to be a little patient at first.
Why do we do this? So that it's more difficult for spammers (be they human or robot) to post, and so users who are banned cannot immediately re-register and start dousing people with verbal flames.
Below are the rules of Pacers Digest. After you have read them, you will have a very good sense of where we are coming from, what we expect, what we don't want to see, and how we react to things.
Rule #1
Pacers Digest is intended to be a place to discuss basketball without having to deal with the kinds of behaviors or attitudes that distract people from sticking with the discussion of the topics at hand. These unwanted distractions can come in many forms, and admittedly it can sometimes be tricky to pin down each and every kind that can rear its ugly head, but we feel that the following examples and explanations cover at least a good portion of that ground and should at least give people a pretty good idea of the kinds of things we actively discourage:
"Anyone who __________ is a liar / a fool / an idiot / a blind homer / has their head buried in the sand / a blind hater / doesn't know basketball / doesn't watch the games"
"People with intelligence will agree with me when I say that __________"
"Only stupid people think / believe / do ___________"
"I can't wait to hear something from PosterX when he/she sees that **insert a given incident or current event that will have probably upset or disappointed PosterX here**"
"He/she is just delusional"
"This thread is stupid / worthless / embarrassing"
"I'm going to take a moment to point and
/ laugh at PosterX / GroupOfPeopleY who thought / believed *insert though/belief here*"
"Remember when PosterX said OldCommentY that no longer looks good?"
In general, if a comment goes from purely on topic to something 'ad hominem' (personal jabs, personal shots, attacks, flames, however you want to call it, towards a person, or a group of people, or a given city/state/country of people), those are most likely going to be found intolerable.
We also dissuade passive aggressive behavior. This can be various things, but common examples include statements that are basically meant to imply someone is either stupid or otherwise incapable of holding a rational conversation. This can include (but is not limited to) laughing at someone's conclusions rather than offering an honest rebuttal, asking people what game they were watching, or another common problem is Poster X will say "that player isn't that bad" and then Poster Y will say something akin to "LOL you think that player is good". We're not going to tolerate those kinds of comments out of respect for the community at large and for the sake of trying to just have an honest conversation.
Now, does the above cover absolutely every single kind of distraction that is unwanted? Probably not, but you should by now have a good idea of the general types of things we will be discouraging. The above examples are meant to give you a good feel for / idea of what we're looking for. If something new or different than the above happens to come along and results in the same problem (that being, any other attitude or behavior that ultimately distracts from actually just discussing the topic at hand, or that is otherwise disrespectful to other posters), we can and we will take action to curb this as well, so please don't take this to mean that if you managed to technically avoid saying something exactly like one of the above examples that you are then somehow off the hook.
That all having been said, our goal is to do so in a generally kind and respectful way, and that doesn't mean the moment we see something we don't like that somebody is going to be suspended or banned, either. It just means that at the very least we will probably say something about it, quite possibly snipping out the distracting parts of the post in question while leaving alone the parts that are actually just discussing the topics, and in the event of a repeating or excessive problem, then we will start issuing infractions to try to further discourage further repeat problems, and if it just never seems to improve, then finally suspensions or bans will come into play. We would prefer it never went that far, and most of the time for most of our posters, it won't ever have to.
A slip up every once and a while is pretty normal, but, again, when it becomes repetitive or excessive, something will be done. Something occasional is probably going to be let go (within reason), but when it starts to become habitual or otherwise a pattern, odds are very good that we will step in.
There's always a small minority that like to push people's buttons and/or test their own boundaries with regards to the administrators, and in the case of someone acting like that, please be aware that this is not a court of law, but a private website run by people who are simply trying to do the right thing as they see it. If we feel that you are a special case that needs to be dealt with in an exceptional way because your behavior isn't explicitly mirroring one of our above examples of what we generally discourage, we can and we will take atypical action to prevent this from continuing if you are not cooperative with us.
Also please be aware that you will not be given a pass simply by claiming that you were 'only joking,' because quite honestly, when someone really is just joking, for one thing most people tend to pick up on the joke, including the person or group that is the target of the joke, and for another thing, in the event where an honest joke gets taken seriously and it upsets or angers someone, the person who is truly 'only joking' will quite commonly go out of his / her way to apologize and will try to mend fences. People who are dishonest about their statements being 'jokes' do not do so, and in turn that becomes a clear sign of what is really going on. It's nothing new.
In any case, quite frankly, the overall quality and health of the entire forum's community is more important than any one troublesome user will ever be, regardless of exactly how a problem is exhibiting itself, and if it comes down to us having to make a choice between you versus the greater health and happiness of the entire community, the community of this forum will win every time.
Lastly, there are also some posters, who are generally great contributors and do not otherwise cause any problems, who sometimes feel it's their place to provoke or to otherwise 'mess with' that small minority of people described in the last paragraph, and while we possibly might understand why you might feel you WANT to do something like that, the truth is we can't actually tolerate that kind of behavior from you any more than we can tolerate the behavior from them. So if we feel that you are trying to provoke those other posters into doing or saying something that will get themselves into trouble, then we will start to view you as a problem as well, because of the same reason as before: The overall health of the forum comes first, and trying to stir the pot with someone like that doesn't help, it just makes it worse. Some will simply disagree with this philosophy, but if so, then so be it because ultimately we have to do what we think is best so long as it's up to us.
If you see a problem that we haven't addressed, the best and most appropriate course for a forum member to take here is to look over to the left of the post in question. See underneath that poster's name, avatar, and other info, down where there's a little triangle with an exclamation point (!) in it? Click that. That allows you to report the post to the admins so we can definitely notice it and give it a look to see what we feel we should do about it. Beyond that, obviously it's human nature sometimes to want to speak up to the poster in question who has bothered you, but we would ask that you try to refrain from doing so because quite often what happens is two or more posters all start going back and forth about the original offending post, and suddenly the entire thread is off topic or otherwise derailed. So while the urge to police it yourself is understandable, it's best to just report it to us and let us handle it. Thank you!
All of the above is going to be subject to a case by case basis, but generally and broadly speaking, this should give everyone a pretty good idea of how things will typically / most often be handled.
Rule #2
If the actions of an administrator inspire you to make a comment, criticism, or express a concern about it, there is a wrong place and a couple of right places to do so.
The wrong place is to do so in the original thread in which the administrator took action. For example, if a post gets an infraction, or a post gets deleted, or a comment within a larger post gets clipped out, in a thread discussing Paul George, the wrong thing to do is to distract from the discussion of Paul George by adding your off topic thoughts on what the administrator did.
The right places to do so are:
A) Start a thread about the specific incident you want to talk about on the Feedback board. This way you are able to express yourself in an area that doesn't throw another thread off topic, and this way others can add their two cents as well if they wish, and additionally if there's something that needs to be said by the administrators, that is where they will respond to it.
B) Send a private message to the administrators, and they can respond to you that way.
If this is done the wrong way, those comments will be deleted, and if it's a repeating problem then it may also receive an infraction as well.
Rule #3
If a poster is bothering you, and an administrator has not or will not deal with that poster to the extent that you would prefer, you have a powerful tool at your disposal, one that has recently been upgraded and is now better than ever: The ability to ignore a user.
When you ignore a user, you will unfortunately still see some hints of their existence (nothing we can do about that), however, it does the following key things:
A) Any post they make will be completely invisible as you scroll through a thread.
B) The new addition to this feature: If someone QUOTES a user you are ignoring, you do not have to read who it was, or what that poster said, unless you go out of your way to click on a link to find out who it is and what they said.
To utilize this feature, from any page on Pacers Digest, scroll to the top of the page, look to the top right where it says 'Settings' and click that. From the settings page, look to the left side of the page where it says 'My Settings', and look down from there until you see 'Edit Ignore List' and click that. From here, it will say 'Add a Member to Your List...' Beneath that, click in the text box to the right of 'User Name', type in or copy & paste the username of the poster you are ignoring, and once their name is in the box, look over to the far right and click the 'Okay' button. All done!
Rule #4
Regarding infractions, currently they carry a value of one point each, and that point will expire in 31 days. If at any point a poster is carrying three points at the same time, that poster will be suspended until the oldest of the three points expires.
Rule #5
When you share or paste content or articles from another website, you must include the URL/link back to where you found it, who wrote it, and what website it's from. Said content will be removed if this doesn't happen.
An example:
If I copy and paste an article from the Indianapolis Star website, I would post something like this:
http://www.linktothearticlegoeshere.com/article
Title of the Article
Author's Name
Indianapolis Star
Rule #6
We cannot tolerate illegal videos on Pacers Digest. This means do not share any links to them, do not mention any websites that host them or link to them, do not describe how to find them in any way, and do not ask about them. Posts doing anything of the sort will be removed, the offenders will be contacted privately, and if the problem becomes habitual, you will be suspended, and if it still persists, you will probably be banned.
The legal means of watching or listening to NBA games are NBA League Pass Broadband (for US, or for International; both cost money) and NBA Audio League Pass (which is free). Look for them on NBA.com.
Rule #7
Provocative statements in a signature, or as an avatar, or as the 'tagline' beneath a poster's username (where it says 'Member' or 'Administrator' by default, if it is not altered) are an unwanted distraction that will more than likely be removed on sight. There can be shades of gray to this, but in general this could be something political or religious that is likely going to provoke or upset people, or otherwise something that is mean-spirited at the expense of a poster, a group of people, or a population.
It may or may not go without saying, but this goes for threads and posts as well, particularly when it's not made on the off-topic board (Market Square).
We do make exceptions if we feel the content is both innocuous and unlikely to cause social problems on the forum (such as wishing someone a Merry Christmas or a Happy Easter), and we also also make exceptions if such topics come up with regards to a sports figure (such as the Lance Stephenson situation bringing up discussions of domestic abuse and the law, or when Jason Collins came out as gay and how that lead to some discussion about gay rights).
However, once the discussion seems to be more/mostly about the political issues instead of the sports figure or his specific situation, the thread is usually closed.
Rule #8
We prefer self-restraint and/or modesty when making jokes or off topic comments in a sports discussion thread. They can be fun, but sometimes they derail or distract from a topic, and we don't want to see that happen. If we feel it is a problem, we will either delete or move those posts from the thread.
Rule #9
Generally speaking, we try to be a "PG-13" rated board, and we don't want to see sexual content or similarly suggestive content. Vulgarity is a more muddled issue, though again we prefer things to lean more towards "PG-13" than "R". If we feel things have gone too far, we will step in.
Rule #10
We like small signatures, not big signatures. The bigger the signature, the more likely it is an annoying or distracting signature.
Rule #11
Do not advertise anything without talking about it with the administrators first. This includes advertising with your signature, with your avatar, through private messaging, and/or by making a thread or post.
Whether your are a long standing forum member or whether you have just registered today, it's a good idea to read and review the rules below so that you have a very good idea of what to expect when you come to Pacers Digest.
A quick note to new members: Your posts will not immediately show up when you make them. An administrator has to approve at least your first post before the forum software will later upgrade your account to the status of a fully-registered member. This usually happens within a couple of hours or so after your post(s) is/are approved, so you may need to be a little patient at first.
Why do we do this? So that it's more difficult for spammers (be they human or robot) to post, and so users who are banned cannot immediately re-register and start dousing people with verbal flames.
Below are the rules of Pacers Digest. After you have read them, you will have a very good sense of where we are coming from, what we expect, what we don't want to see, and how we react to things.
Rule #1
Pacers Digest is intended to be a place to discuss basketball without having to deal with the kinds of behaviors or attitudes that distract people from sticking with the discussion of the topics at hand. These unwanted distractions can come in many forms, and admittedly it can sometimes be tricky to pin down each and every kind that can rear its ugly head, but we feel that the following examples and explanations cover at least a good portion of that ground and should at least give people a pretty good idea of the kinds of things we actively discourage:
"Anyone who __________ is a liar / a fool / an idiot / a blind homer / has their head buried in the sand / a blind hater / doesn't know basketball / doesn't watch the games"
"People with intelligence will agree with me when I say that __________"
"Only stupid people think / believe / do ___________"
"I can't wait to hear something from PosterX when he/she sees that **insert a given incident or current event that will have probably upset or disappointed PosterX here**"
"He/she is just delusional"
"This thread is stupid / worthless / embarrassing"
"I'm going to take a moment to point and
/ laugh at PosterX / GroupOfPeopleY who thought / believed *insert though/belief here*""Remember when PosterX said OldCommentY that no longer looks good?
"In general, if a comment goes from purely on topic to something 'ad hominem' (personal jabs, personal shots, attacks, flames, however you want to call it, towards a person, or a group of people, or a given city/state/country of people), those are most likely going to be found intolerable.
We also dissuade passive aggressive behavior. This can be various things, but common examples include statements that are basically meant to imply someone is either stupid or otherwise incapable of holding a rational conversation. This can include (but is not limited to) laughing at someone's conclusions rather than offering an honest rebuttal, asking people what game they were watching, or another common problem is Poster X will say "that player isn't that bad" and then Poster Y will say something akin to "LOL you think that player is good". We're not going to tolerate those kinds of comments out of respect for the community at large and for the sake of trying to just have an honest conversation.
Now, does the above cover absolutely every single kind of distraction that is unwanted? Probably not, but you should by now have a good idea of the general types of things we will be discouraging. The above examples are meant to give you a good feel for / idea of what we're looking for. If something new or different than the above happens to come along and results in the same problem (that being, any other attitude or behavior that ultimately distracts from actually just discussing the topic at hand, or that is otherwise disrespectful to other posters), we can and we will take action to curb this as well, so please don't take this to mean that if you managed to technically avoid saying something exactly like one of the above examples that you are then somehow off the hook.
That all having been said, our goal is to do so in a generally kind and respectful way, and that doesn't mean the moment we see something we don't like that somebody is going to be suspended or banned, either. It just means that at the very least we will probably say something about it, quite possibly snipping out the distracting parts of the post in question while leaving alone the parts that are actually just discussing the topics, and in the event of a repeating or excessive problem, then we will start issuing infractions to try to further discourage further repeat problems, and if it just never seems to improve, then finally suspensions or bans will come into play. We would prefer it never went that far, and most of the time for most of our posters, it won't ever have to.
A slip up every once and a while is pretty normal, but, again, when it becomes repetitive or excessive, something will be done. Something occasional is probably going to be let go (within reason), but when it starts to become habitual or otherwise a pattern, odds are very good that we will step in.
There's always a small minority that like to push people's buttons and/or test their own boundaries with regards to the administrators, and in the case of someone acting like that, please be aware that this is not a court of law, but a private website run by people who are simply trying to do the right thing as they see it. If we feel that you are a special case that needs to be dealt with in an exceptional way because your behavior isn't explicitly mirroring one of our above examples of what we generally discourage, we can and we will take atypical action to prevent this from continuing if you are not cooperative with us.
Also please be aware that you will not be given a pass simply by claiming that you were 'only joking,' because quite honestly, when someone really is just joking, for one thing most people tend to pick up on the joke, including the person or group that is the target of the joke, and for another thing, in the event where an honest joke gets taken seriously and it upsets or angers someone, the person who is truly 'only joking' will quite commonly go out of his / her way to apologize and will try to mend fences. People who are dishonest about their statements being 'jokes' do not do so, and in turn that becomes a clear sign of what is really going on. It's nothing new.
In any case, quite frankly, the overall quality and health of the entire forum's community is more important than any one troublesome user will ever be, regardless of exactly how a problem is exhibiting itself, and if it comes down to us having to make a choice between you versus the greater health and happiness of the entire community, the community of this forum will win every time.
Lastly, there are also some posters, who are generally great contributors and do not otherwise cause any problems, who sometimes feel it's their place to provoke or to otherwise 'mess with' that small minority of people described in the last paragraph, and while we possibly might understand why you might feel you WANT to do something like that, the truth is we can't actually tolerate that kind of behavior from you any more than we can tolerate the behavior from them. So if we feel that you are trying to provoke those other posters into doing or saying something that will get themselves into trouble, then we will start to view you as a problem as well, because of the same reason as before: The overall health of the forum comes first, and trying to stir the pot with someone like that doesn't help, it just makes it worse. Some will simply disagree with this philosophy, but if so, then so be it because ultimately we have to do what we think is best so long as it's up to us.
If you see a problem that we haven't addressed, the best and most appropriate course for a forum member to take here is to look over to the left of the post in question. See underneath that poster's name, avatar, and other info, down where there's a little triangle with an exclamation point (!) in it? Click that. That allows you to report the post to the admins so we can definitely notice it and give it a look to see what we feel we should do about it. Beyond that, obviously it's human nature sometimes to want to speak up to the poster in question who has bothered you, but we would ask that you try to refrain from doing so because quite often what happens is two or more posters all start going back and forth about the original offending post, and suddenly the entire thread is off topic or otherwise derailed. So while the urge to police it yourself is understandable, it's best to just report it to us and let us handle it. Thank you!
All of the above is going to be subject to a case by case basis, but generally and broadly speaking, this should give everyone a pretty good idea of how things will typically / most often be handled.
Rule #2
If the actions of an administrator inspire you to make a comment, criticism, or express a concern about it, there is a wrong place and a couple of right places to do so.
The wrong place is to do so in the original thread in which the administrator took action. For example, if a post gets an infraction, or a post gets deleted, or a comment within a larger post gets clipped out, in a thread discussing Paul George, the wrong thing to do is to distract from the discussion of Paul George by adding your off topic thoughts on what the administrator did.
The right places to do so are:
A) Start a thread about the specific incident you want to talk about on the Feedback board. This way you are able to express yourself in an area that doesn't throw another thread off topic, and this way others can add their two cents as well if they wish, and additionally if there's something that needs to be said by the administrators, that is where they will respond to it.
B) Send a private message to the administrators, and they can respond to you that way.
If this is done the wrong way, those comments will be deleted, and if it's a repeating problem then it may also receive an infraction as well.
Rule #3
If a poster is bothering you, and an administrator has not or will not deal with that poster to the extent that you would prefer, you have a powerful tool at your disposal, one that has recently been upgraded and is now better than ever: The ability to ignore a user.
When you ignore a user, you will unfortunately still see some hints of their existence (nothing we can do about that), however, it does the following key things:
A) Any post they make will be completely invisible as you scroll through a thread.
B) The new addition to this feature: If someone QUOTES a user you are ignoring, you do not have to read who it was, or what that poster said, unless you go out of your way to click on a link to find out who it is and what they said.
To utilize this feature, from any page on Pacers Digest, scroll to the top of the page, look to the top right where it says 'Settings' and click that. From the settings page, look to the left side of the page where it says 'My Settings', and look down from there until you see 'Edit Ignore List' and click that. From here, it will say 'Add a Member to Your List...' Beneath that, click in the text box to the right of 'User Name', type in or copy & paste the username of the poster you are ignoring, and once their name is in the box, look over to the far right and click the 'Okay' button. All done!
Rule #4
Regarding infractions, currently they carry a value of one point each, and that point will expire in 31 days. If at any point a poster is carrying three points at the same time, that poster will be suspended until the oldest of the three points expires.
Rule #5
When you share or paste content or articles from another website, you must include the URL/link back to where you found it, who wrote it, and what website it's from. Said content will be removed if this doesn't happen.
An example:
If I copy and paste an article from the Indianapolis Star website, I would post something like this:
http://www.linktothearticlegoeshere.com/article
Title of the Article
Author's Name
Indianapolis Star
Rule #6
We cannot tolerate illegal videos on Pacers Digest. This means do not share any links to them, do not mention any websites that host them or link to them, do not describe how to find them in any way, and do not ask about them. Posts doing anything of the sort will be removed, the offenders will be contacted privately, and if the problem becomes habitual, you will be suspended, and if it still persists, you will probably be banned.
The legal means of watching or listening to NBA games are NBA League Pass Broadband (for US, or for International; both cost money) and NBA Audio League Pass (which is free). Look for them on NBA.com.
Rule #7
Provocative statements in a signature, or as an avatar, or as the 'tagline' beneath a poster's username (where it says 'Member' or 'Administrator' by default, if it is not altered) are an unwanted distraction that will more than likely be removed on sight. There can be shades of gray to this, but in general this could be something political or religious that is likely going to provoke or upset people, or otherwise something that is mean-spirited at the expense of a poster, a group of people, or a population.
It may or may not go without saying, but this goes for threads and posts as well, particularly when it's not made on the off-topic board (Market Square).
We do make exceptions if we feel the content is both innocuous and unlikely to cause social problems on the forum (such as wishing someone a Merry Christmas or a Happy Easter), and we also also make exceptions if such topics come up with regards to a sports figure (such as the Lance Stephenson situation bringing up discussions of domestic abuse and the law, or when Jason Collins came out as gay and how that lead to some discussion about gay rights).
However, once the discussion seems to be more/mostly about the political issues instead of the sports figure or his specific situation, the thread is usually closed.
Rule #8
We prefer self-restraint and/or modesty when making jokes or off topic comments in a sports discussion thread. They can be fun, but sometimes they derail or distract from a topic, and we don't want to see that happen. If we feel it is a problem, we will either delete or move those posts from the thread.
Rule #9
Generally speaking, we try to be a "PG-13" rated board, and we don't want to see sexual content or similarly suggestive content. Vulgarity is a more muddled issue, though again we prefer things to lean more towards "PG-13" than "R". If we feel things have gone too far, we will step in.
Rule #10
We like small signatures, not big signatures. The bigger the signature, the more likely it is an annoying or distracting signature.
Rule #11
Do not advertise anything without talking about it with the administrators first. This includes advertising with your signature, with your avatar, through private messaging, and/or by making a thread or post.
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Come to the Dark Side -- There's cookies!
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Re: Dime Magazine
Originally posted by Kegboy
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Re: Dime Magazine
The gauntlet has been laid down... who will step up ?
Why Not Us ?
Comment
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Re: Dime Magazine
ME!
ehhh...not really. Comment
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Re: Dime Magazine
:1oops:Come to the Dark Side -- There's cookies!
Comment
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Re: Dime Magazine
I wanna get it........
Comment
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Re: Dime Magazine
oooh NICE pic! Comment
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Re: Dime Magazine
I gotta go get that issue!!!! Comment
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Re: Dime Magazine
I thought an article from this issue was posted two weeks ago?Comment
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Re: Dime Magazine
Run Shade RunComment
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Re: Dime Magazine
Thanks Reggie looks like you can read it online
http://www.dimemag.com/feature.asp?id=1935
Why Not Us ?
Comment
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Re: Dime Magazine
Jermaine O'Neal | Hustle & Flow
The iron gates to Jermaine O’Neal’s driveway yawn open. Lamborghini. Ferrari. Rolls. Phantom. Range. “The Fleet,” as Jermaine would later affectionately refer to them, is out in the afternoon sun being washed and waxed.
Inside the gates, everything – the cars, the pool, the workout room, the home movie theater – is serene and perfect and spotless; like some kind of MTV Cribs Shangri-la. Beds are made. Couch cushions are arranged. Sneakers are lined up neatly outside the door (no kicks allowed in the house); everything inside is polished and sparkling.
Out in the backyard, all is quiet, save for the low gentle gurgle of water spilling off the edge of the infinity pool. Jermaine sidles up just as softly and looks over the expanse of his property. “You know what’s funny?” he asks. “I never even come out here. This is mostly all for my daughter.” He motions back to his house. “Everything I would ever need is in there. I really don’t ever have to leave. It’s perfect.”
There’s a reason why Jermaine chose to build his fortress of solitude in a quiet suburb of Indianapolis. There’s a reason why he had the electronic iron gates erected in front of his driveway. There’s a reason why he asks you to take your shoes off before entering his home and why everything is so immaculately kept. Within these walls, Jermaine can control everything. His world is in order; it all makes sense and everything has it place and is safe. This is his sanctuary.
Father. Protector. Basketball player. That, in order, best and simply sums up Jermaine O’Neal. Fierce when he feels himself or his family is threatened, his instincts direct him to do whatever it takes to keep them protected. The gates went up shortly after he first arrived in Indiana, when people started following him home from practice and games, sometimes pulling right up into his driveway to accost him and his family. “When it was just me here, it wasn’t a big deal because I’m a big guy and I can take care of myself,” he says. “But now that my daughter stays with me? I can’t afford to take any chances with her safety.”
There is actually a “safe room” in Jermaine’s house. Think Batcave. On the far side of his movie theater, there’s a spot on the wall where if you push it just right, a hidden door swings open to reveal a tiny reinforced room that can be locked from the inside. It’s smallish and bare, and in non-crisis time doubles as a poker room for Jermaine and his Pacers teammates, complete with walls splashed with a cartoonish mural that pays homage to the icons of Las Vegas – Wayne Newton, Siegfried & Roy and The Strip.
Admittedly, Jermaine’s natural instinct to protect those close to him led to him being such a prime player in what has come to be known now simply as “The Brawl.” Millions have seen the replays of the madness that went down the night of November 19 in Detroit. Amidst the chaos of players fighting with fans is the now infamous footage of Jermaine flying into the screen to launch, and land, a haymaker on one of the many fans who had come onto the court to take part in the lunacy.
It seems such a far cry from the person taking us on a tour of his home. There isn’t a hint of uncorked anger or rage in the O’Neal who today. He’s accommodating and polite, if a little low-key, continually offering water, juice and food to his visitors. He’s wearing a Reggie Miller retro jersey, really the only one from an impressive collection that he still wears these days. “Reggie is what I strive to be,” Jermaine says. “I can really only hope to be half the player or person that he is.”
That November night in Detroit, Jermaine, like so many other players and fans, just lost control. He saw his teammates in danger and in an indirect way, felt that his family was in danger too, and he reacted like a lion would if his cubs were threatened. “Listen, nobody, no one person, should have to bear the burden of that situation in Detroit,” Jermaine says. “I never shied away from what I did. I welcomed my punishment with open hands. As the leader of my team though, the most difficult part of my job is to make sure my team acts a certain way, plays a certain way … and I have to make sure they’re safe.
“I know what I did was wrong. But look at it this way: What if I was stabbed? I didn’t know what that guy was going to do. He came out on the court with his hands raised. Is that same fan going to take care of my family if something had happened to me? If I was put in that same position, I would do that exact same thing again. I would serve my time again. I just can’t understand why someone would want to harm you over a basketball game. It just doesn’t make sense.”
Jermaine’s role in the incident cost him much – a 25-game suspension without pay (that was later reduced to 15 games), and his character, along with everyone else’s who was involved in the incident, was maligned by just about everybody during a year that was the darkest of his career.
“One day shouldn’t determine your life,” Jermaine says. “I don’t think any one situation should. I really believe that. Thank God that the people around me – my family and my marketing people – they never wavered once in their support for me.”
During his suspension, Jermaine retreated to his sanctuary and was scarcely seen outside its walls until it was time for him to return to the team. He watched, helplessly, as a skeletal version of his team struggled to win games with at times, only seven or eight players in uniform. When he did come back, the struggles continued. He severely injured his shoulder but gutted it out in the playoffs, battling in vain, with really only one good arm, against the Pistons in the second round.
“Signs come to you in all sorts of ways,” Jermaine says. “I remember before last year, a guy, a complete stranger, came up to me on the street and said to me, ‘This is going to be the most challenging year of your career.’ And that’s all he said. He walked away right after that. I didn’t think much about it at the time. Then a week later I hurt my foot. I get back, six, seven games later, The Brawl happens. I come back and after the All-Star break, I hurt my shoulder – tore it in three places. It was only when I was in the middle of all that stuff did I think of that guy telling me that.
“I look back and it was such a down year for me. Numbers-wise, it was the best ever for me (Jermaine’s 24.3 points per game average was a career high). But it was still just awful. I struggled a lot mentally – injuries, the suspension, having to watch from the sidelines. I just wasn’t happy. But even in the darkest time, I thought to myself, ‘If I can’t endure tougher things than this, I can’t endure success.’ I know that success brings so many good and bad things. You have to be strong enough to deal with the bad. Where I am right now, the way I have changed – it started that night in Detroit.
“It helped me to re-focus,” Jermaine continues. “I’m coming back with a chip on my shoulder. As much as I was hurting, it was important to me that I never showed any weakness during everything … But you know what? People are still trying to penalize us. It takes two to tango, you know? People never want to let go of it. That’s why Rick [Carlisle] didn’t win Coach of the Year. People didn’t want to see us in the playoffs. Everyone talks about the Pistons’ story and how they overcame so much. It’s almost comical. Overcame so much? It’s like, ‘No you didn’t.’ We lost 10 more games than they did and we didn’t have our starting lineup out there once.”
If ever there was time for Jermaine to show that he is prepared to truly lead the Pacers, now is that time. Heading into the season, Indiana is stacked. Jermaine, arguably the best forward in the East, is fully healthy. Ron Artest is back from his season-long suspension. The team got unbelievably lucky when New Mexico senior swingman Danny Granger inexplicably fell to them at No. 17 in the draft (he had been rumored to go as high as No.3), and they won a heated battle to sign free agent guard Sarunas Jasikevicius, widely regarded as the best player in Europe over the last few seasons. And with Reggie Miller gone, this is now Jermaine’s team.
“I think he grew up quickly last year,” says Pacers CEO and President Donnie Walsh. “And now with Reggie no longer here, Jermaine now has a great deal of responsibility with that role [as leader]. He’s already found out that when you get to that position you have to give a lot to get the best out of people.
“I think he can be a great leader because he saw what Reggie did. For 20 years, Reggie practiced hard and he played hard. And maybe most importantly, Jermaine learned a lot about how to run a locker room.”
Jasikevicius says that a large part of his decision to sign with Indiana came when he got a call from Jermaine this summer. “I spoke with Jermaine when I was still undecided, so when he called me, it was kind of a recruiting thing,” Sarunas says. “When he called, he was basically saying how excited he was for this season and how I could fit in and help a team that was able to be successful last season even with everything that they had going on. He wanted to me to know this season would be even better. It just gave me a good feeling about him and the team.”
There’s a memorabilia room in Jermaine’s house, just off from his kitchen and living room, that pays homage to professionals sports’ greatest athletes. “You have to either be in a Hall of Fame or have Hall of Fame credentials to get in,” O’Neal says. There are signed jerseys from Isiah and Bird, an autographed football from Jim Brown and the pair of kicks that Mike wore in his last All-Star game. “I told Mike that he had to give them to me or else I was going to figure some way to take them,” laughs Jermaine.
Among the memorabilia, there is also a fountain pen set in a glass case. It’s the same one he used to ink his seven-year, $126 million contract with the Pacers in 2003 and there’s an inscription on the case that reads, “The $100 Million Pen.” A symbol to show off his massive pay day? No, says Jermaine. “I cried tears of joy that day. Because of this contract, I can take care of my daughter and my family and my relatives – all of them – for a long, long time. I want to be able to take care of everybody,” he says. “My mother asks me, ‘Why do you want to endure so much?’ That’s easy. If you take the centerpiece out of all the building blocks, the whole thing will collapse. I am that centerpiece. I believe in me. I will deal with everything that comes my way head on.”
As the self-proclaimed “centerpiece” of both his family and his team, do those around him ever fear that Jermaine is trying to put too much on his slender shoulders? “Yes, of course,” Walsh says. “But I also think he goes about it the right way where he just tries to do the right thing every day. I definitely don’t want him to feel like he has to try to win every game all by himself every night.”
When asked about all of the pressure and expectations he puts on himself, Jermaine doesn’t seem worried. “The only person who understands what I go through is me,” he says. “Not my mom, not my friends, no psychiatrist. If you’re always looking for help, you’ll never be able to help yourself.”
The day is done and Jermaine is headed out to go pick up his daughter from a friend’s house. He goes around and shakes everyone’s hand – writer, photographer, photo assistants – and thanks them for visiting. Someone wishes Jermaine good luck.
“Thank you,” he says. “I’m just waiting for better days.”
And when will that be?
“That better day is not here yet,” he replies as he disappears into his house. “I’ll let you know when it is.”Comment
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Re: Dime Magazine
thanks for postin it! Comment
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Re: Dime Magazine
Hopefully Shade won't get that far down before he leaves.
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Come to the Dark Side -- There's cookies!
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Re: Dime Magazine
I like how he was wearin a Retro Reg jersey! Comment
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