[11/25/04] Don’t you just feel bad for Ron Artest? Don’t you feel bad that he will lose most of his $5 million salary this season? Don’t you feel bad that the mighty NBA Commissioner David Stern is picking on poor Ron Artest?

If you answered no to all of the above, you can join Mike Miner.

Not many in Warren County are familiar with that name, but two years ago Mike Miner saw firsthand a side of Ron Artest that everyone saw again on Friday night; his thug side.

Miner, a freelance cameraman, lives in suburban New York City. He’s filmed high school to professional sports, from work for a cable access channel to recording the Republican National Convention.

Two years ago, while working for the Madison Square Garden television network, Miner was in the tunnel leading from the Garden court to the locker rooms. His job was to film the players as they walked by and the announcers did a voice-over.

Then Ron Artest appeared.

The Pacers has just lost a close game to homestanding New York Knicks when Artest stormed into the tunnel, he grabbed a television monitor and smashed it against the ground.

Miner, about 50 feet from the incident and filming the entire time, then felt the brunt of Artest’s anger as the Pacers’ superthug reached for a high definition camera that only he could afford, told Miner, “give me that (thug talk) camera.”

Miner said, “Ron, chill,” then watched as the New York City native smashed the camera into pieces.

So on Friday, when Miner was driving home from work listening to New York’s most popular all-sports radio station, he wasn’t surprised one bit to hear of what had transpired in Detroit.

“Let’s put it this way, I wasn’t surprised,” Miner said. “It’s par for the course for something like this to happen.”

When he saw the fight for the first time, he said he got chills thinking back to his run-in.

“This was the lowest of the low,” Miner said.

He listened to talk radio some more, fuming at the notion of people actually defending Artest. Each time he heard about how the NBA was taking away Artest’s livelihood, his blood started to boil.

Artest is a thug who lost his cool in the manner in which he lost it two years ago. Since February, he has been suspended twice by the NBA and fined and benched twice by his team.

Artest represents everything bad about a league that will now struggle to put this episode behind it.

Artest is appealing his season-long suspension. It shouldn’t be overturned.

He should be mighty glad his career is not over.

If we’re real lucky, it will be. When Artest’s suspension is up, wouldn’t it be nice for the Pacers to say, “It was swell knowing you. Have a great life.”

Wouldn’t it even be nicer for every NBA team to say the same thing?

I doubt you’d get much argument from a cameraman who did nothing but his job, and caught Artest’s wrath in the process.

Sean P. Murphy is sports editor of The Vicksburg Post. E-mail him at smurphy@vicksburgpost.com.