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TA is on tape pointing the guy out to his guys, punching the guy, and kicking him when he was down. THAT is a fact. Just because you aren't convicted of something doesn't mean you aren't guilty of it… Big Ben didn't do anything wrong either...
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First of all, if you aren't convicted of something, then yes that means you're not guilty. The Big Ben situation revolved around the fact that the accuser didn't want to press charges. In TA's case, charges were brought, but there wasn't enough evidece to convict. They are two completely different situations. If Big Ben's accuser wanted to press charges, charges would have been filed and the case would have gone to court. TA's case has been adjudicated and he was found not guilty.
Second, you talk as if you've never seen a brawl or been in a fight. These things tend to happen very fast and for the most part the participants tend to either run away or use excessive force before they run away. Why? Because they're frightened. I can guarantee if I was in a brawl and somebody came at me, I'd either run or I wouldn't stop fighting till the other guy was unconscious. There's no in-between--you act in the spur of the moment and your adrenaline takes over. Given the gravity of the moment, there's no time for normal rational thought. You must act and if you choose to fight, you tend to act violently, sometimes to a degree that exceeds the necessity of the situation. Again, if some guy's coming at you full blast with the intent to harm you, are you telling me you're going to be able to accurately determine the exact moment when you've beaten him back to the point that you're no longer at harm? Or will you give him a couple extra licks just to be sure?
You also seem to be under the impression that one guy got jumped by Tony's 'gang' and beaten to a pulp. Wrong. It was a brawl, with multiple participants on each side. The one guy that was singled out was the instigator, but each side was takin and recieving blows, which is why they ended up not finding either party guilty. The principle of self-defense states that if you percieve imminent bodily harm you get a wide berth when defending yourself....
....Tony was not convicted of any wrongdoing because in America you can't be guilty by association.
Not when you can hire an expensive lawyer...
It goes both ways, buddy. Athletes have the luxury of good attorneys, but they're also targets, especially when they're celebrating loudy in crowded public places late at night and there's alcohol involved. The guy in question is hardly an innocent bystander--in fact, he started the brawl with one of Tony's friends and things escalated from there. Neither of us were there, but I tend to look at the whole picture and from my perspective, Tony was no worse or better than any other average brawl participant. He didn't start the brawl, but he does take some blame for not running away sooner. Then again, it's the old fight/flight response, and if somebody's threatening you, it's hard to say you're not going to stand up and fight.
And it's not like TA bought the best lawyer around, or that the the DA bringing the charges was some kind of chump. In fact, Tony's celebrity probably hurt him more than helped him in this case, since it made it a high profile case and something I'm sure the DA's office really wanted to win...
Bottom line: you can't define a person's character via one event. Tony's good life moments outweigh his bad ones by a mile and there's no saying otherwise... This is all just a pile of player hating
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#1, saying that because someone isn't convicted of something means that they aren't guilty of it is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard in my life. There are millions of women out there, for example, that were raped and no one was ever convicted of it. Are you really trying to sit there and say that no one was guilty of raping them?! Do you think they sit there and think. "Oh well, I guess maybe I didn't really get raped..." Of course you aren't, you're just trying to defend TA.
#2, whether or not other people also were fighting does not condone TA coming in from the first and pointing out the guy to his crew do go and beat down. The guy may have deserved it. The guy was also likely a thug. That doesn't mean that TA was in the right.
#3 - Kicking a guy laying on the ground is not something that people do unless they are lousy people. That is thug behavior plain and simple.
You can be a TA the player fan all you want. I have really liked what he has done on the floor this year and hope he keeps it up. He is however a thug. He has kept his nose clean lately most likely due to money reasons. I guarantee you that the NBA and the Celtics made it very clear to TA that he was out of chances. I'm glad he has "contained" himself and stayed away from that behavior. Hopefully he has grown up. None of us know that. This other incident is not debatable though. No matter what they decided to pursue on a legal basis.
