Simple solution the NBA's current woes:
Stop recruiting assholes. This latest controversy with the Pacers and the Pistons is another example of not what's just wrong with the NBA, but pro sports in general.
When I was a kid, way back in the Triassic Era of the 70's and 80's, the NBA certainly had its share of characters and controversy. But in the last twenty years it seems like the league has made it their point to recruit absolutely some of the most loathsome sociopaths to become stars. Enough so that it seems rape and violent assault have become standard practice among the NBA elite.
There's a lot of hand-wringing from Commissioner Stern and others who say that fans sit too close to the court and drink too much and so on -- I'm sure that some of that is true. And to their credit, the league has handed these guys stiffer penalties than any I can remember. But I don't think it goes far enough -- I think these players ought to have been fired and banned from the sport.
Fans can be assholes in any sport. It's not exclusive to basketball, it's just exacerbated because it's closer quarters than other sports -- hell, even hockey games have sideboards to keep the players away from the fans. Having said that, these guys are getting paid more money than God. Their lack of professional decorum is totally inexcuseable. Ben Wallace's inability after the fracas to own up to his part of it and accept responsibility is just infantile. 'He started it' may work on the playground when you're seven, but it just makes you look like a complete ass when you're an adult.
What is unique to basketball is the seemingly never-ending stream of controversy over players that seem to think the law doesn't apply to them, whether it's rapist (or philandering, depending on who's side your on) pigs like Kobe Bryant, or wingnuts like Jayson "12-Gauge" Williams who literally got away with murder. Eleven years ago Charles Barkley said "I am not a role model" in a Nike ad. Barkley's point was that parents should be role models for their kids, not sports stars. But that doesn't absolve Barkley and others from being role models as well, on and off the court. You're getting paid a hell of a lot of money to play for the public, and whether you're prepared for it or not, you're a public figure. By virtue of that fact, you are a role model, whether you like it or not.
Violence and sports go hand in hand -- this is something that goes back to Roman times, and a hell of a lot further. In this day and age, a lot of it has to do with the physicality of the profession, I'm sure. As much of it, I suspect, has to do with the delayed emotional maturity of men who are essentially playing a kid's game -- men who are coddled by agents and coaches and others to think that they're somehow special because they can throw a ball farther, dribble a ball faster or hit a puck straighter than other people. They're not. And big money or not, it's about time the owners and officials responsible for these professional sports organizations step up and show some responsibility to the public.