The Indiana Pacers are back in the news for the wrong stuff again. Pacers guard Stephen Jackson was punched in the face and hit by a car in the parking lot of a nightclub in Indianapolis last night. He shot at the car as it drove away, with his legally purchased and licensed gun. Guards Jamaal Tinsley, Marquis Daniels, and Jimmie Hunter were also present. It is reported that they were arguing with another group of men, but were trying to "extricate themselves" from the situation.
The sportsmedia is already judging Stephen Jackson and all the facts aren't even out yet. You've already got a group of old white men saying the same thing: "What was Stephen Jackson doing at a strip club? When will athletes learn that going to nightclubs and drinking is a bad thing?" They've spent most of their careers painting nightclubs as criminal meeting places, where people are openly fighting and doing drugs right on the bar. They make it sound like something is ALWAYS gonna go down when a pro athlete steps into the place.
They're always going on about how athletes have to be smarter than that and not put themselves in situations where there could be trouble. First of all, again, they don't know the situation. No one besides the four Pacers, the guys they were arguing with, and probably the police, know what happened in that club. Second, there can be trouble anywhere. I remember when I was working in a grocery store, stocking shelves at three in the morning, when a lunatic decided that he was gonna drive his car into the store. No one could have predicted that would happen, except for the slightly deranged man behind the wheel. If Stephen Jackson had been there, the sportswriters still would have been outraged. "What was he doing at a store at three in the morning? He has to be smarter than that!"
I don't expect pro athletes to stay at home and never do anything. Pro athletes, like people who aren't looking at their own colons up close, like to go out and have fun. I don't believe that people should be prisoners of their own fame, however slight it may be. Anyway, some people like to go to strip clubs. That doesn't say anything about their character. That just means that they want to go see naked women. And if you're a guy who doesn't want to see naked women, other guys will come up with names for you like "Faggy McChinnuts, the Man With Dirty Knees."
I wasn't even there, but I'm a guy who's been to a strip club. I think I'm more qualified to speculate than a guy who's real name is Skip Bayless. First, they were probably in the VIP section. The strip clubs that the average broke joker can't afford usually has them. They were minding their own business, throwing money at naked women. The thing about strip clubs is, when someone with money comes in, strippers are going to flock to them. It's basic economics. And once the strippers found out that four members of the Indiana Pacers were there, the hottest strippers found themselves in that VIP room. Some guys got jealous and started talking shit. They were probably saying things like, "Them niggas ain't shit," and "bitch, I got money, too! They ain't nobody!" That's not their fault. That same thing could happen at the gas station. Some people are just jealous of people who are famous. And both situations could potentially end with Stephen Jackson laying across the hood of someone's car.
I'm gonna sum all this up real quick. Things like this do not always happen at the club, be it a nightclub or a strip club. This was an isolated incident. People forget, Stephen Jackson used to play in Atlanta, and if he was the trouble magnet that he's being painted as, he would have gotten into something here. People living in Atlanta can testify...if you're looking for trouble to get into, it can be found somewhere in Atlanta. It's why Isaiah Rider didn't last a season here.
Now, like the sportswriters, I also do not know what happened there, but at least I'm being honest about it. I am not judging anyone involved, but I do think that my story is the most likely scenario. The only reason I'm even writing this is because I believe that sportswriters in general need to come down off of their high horse and understand that sometimes, shit happens. The same thing would happen to George W. Bush if he didn't have the Secret Service protecting him. Someone would come up to him with a mad-on and I assure you, he'd get smacked in the face. Would it have been HIS fault for daring to be out in public?
The defense rests. *throws the mic down*
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