The NBA's pathetic suspension of Patrick Beverley proves once again that fans come last

When the Indiana Pacers finished off their first-round upset of the Milwaukee Bucks last week, all of the analysis of what had been a pretty entertaining basketball series was lost in the furor over the late-game antics of mercurial Bucks guard Patrick Beverley, who was caught on camera throwing a ball at a fan. Twice.

"Furor," I suppose, is perhaps not the right word. Beverley's actions were so egregious that the default assumption from around the league was that Beverley was inevitably facing an extremely lengthy suspension for having crossed the sacrosanct line between athlete and fan. Not only did Beverley chuck a ball at a fan's head, but he apparently missed the fan he was aiming for the first time (striking an innocent bystander in the process), so he got the ball back from a different fan, then chucked the ball at the fan again.

Apparently, the only people who do not agree that Beverley screwed up big-time are all working in the NBA league office.

Watching replay of the incident in the TNT postgame show, Charles Barkley spoke for most of America when he watched the tape: "Oh. He gone. He's gonna get suspended. He hit that lady in the head. ... You can't hit a lady, ever. ... Listen, I've done stupid stuff, and I got criticized. That's just wrong. He's gonna get suspended for that, and that's gonna be a good one, too. 'Cause he didn't do it once; he did it twice."

Chuck Reacts to Patrick Beverley Throwing Ball at Pacers Fan | Inside the NBAwww.youtube.com

In at least one particular, Sir Charles was woefully wrong, because the suspension for Beverley, announced by the league yesterday, was a measly four games. For those keeping track at home, that is less than 5% of Beverley's next regular season. It is also less than one-sixth of the length of the suspension handed down to Memphis superstar Ja Morant for the offense of having a boneheaded friend who posted a video to social media of Morant carrying a gun that he legally owned.

Beverley's actions were so egregious that, unlike Morant, he faces a criminal investigation for the incident that got him suspended. Beverley himself, who has long been one of the most self-assured and defiant interviews in all of sports, acknowledged that his actions were "inexcusable."

Apparently, the only people who do not agree that Beverley screwed up big-time are all working in the NBA league office.

Gone are the days when the league came down like a ton of bricks on the principal participants in the infamous 2004 "Malice at the Palace" incident in Detroit. Even Jermaine O'Neal, who was arguably defending a teammate against a fan who inexcusably ran onto the court, ended up serving 15 games, and Ron Artest and Stephen Jackson got far worse.

It wasn't that long ago that even in the NBA, it was considered inexcusable behavior to physically assault your paying customers. But over the last 20 years, the power center of the NBA has shifted away from owners and general managers to the players, with the end result being that the paying customers of the NBA (the fans) fall down another rung on the priority ladder.

The shift has led to a number of trends that have steadily degraded the viewing experience for fans of the league. Most notably, the league has been woefully slow to respond to the trend started by Gregg Popovich's Spurs teams of regularly resting star players for as much as a quarter of the regular season for "maintenance" reasons. As for the fans who might have spent good money to buy tickets to a specific game in order to see star players, they do not count as much as the players' desires to have more days off, apparently.

Nor do teams apparently have any ability to respond to players who sign a four-year contract with a team only to "demand" a trade halfway through, thus destroying all of the roster continuity that breeds long-term relationships between teams and fans.

Nor, apparently, are teams or the league capable of or interested in even appearing to take seriously the problem of players who are increasingly physically confrontational with fans. Over the last couple years, Clippers guard Russell Westbrook has had at least two heated incidents with fans that very easily could have turned into physical altercations due to Westbrook's clear provocations, and the league did nothing.

Having now done essentially nothing to Beverley, who actually physically assaulted two fans (at least one of whom appears to have been nothing more than a bystander), the league can probably expect more similar behavior in the future. I don't want to sit in judgment of what it's like to be an NBA player because I've never lived that life, but I've attended plenty of sporting events (including NBA games) in my life, and I'm well aware that many athletes take abuse from fans that sometimes crosses the line.

That also is an issue that the league and its teams should address. I don't know what the right way is to address that, but I do know for sure that allowing the players to settle it by chucking basketballs at fans until they hit the one they were aiming for is the wrong way.

I have no idea what happened in this particular case between Beverley and the fan. Beverley alleges that the fan called him an offensive name. I have no idea whether that's true or not, and it does not matter. It particularly does not matter to the woman who got beaned in the head with a basketball for the offense of sitting next to someone who may or may not have said something offensive to Beverley.

The league needed to send a clear message to Beverley and the rest of its players that the proper way to deal with hecklers who cross the line is not to start a physical fight with them. And a paltry four-game suspension is certainly not going to get that message across.

It will, however, get another message across, loud and clear: If you are a paying customer of the NBA, you are the last person the league cares about.