With all the hoopla lately surrounding the ugly episode involving the Indiana Pacers and the Detroit Pistons spectators, thoughts this week turn to sportsmanship and high school athletics. With countable games just around the corner in high school basketball, I thought today might be as good a time as any to address some key issues with the always-important topic of sportsmanship.

First of all, let’s lay to rest all the speculation and rumors surrounding the incident at The Palace in Auburn Hills the other night. From my vantage point here, most crowd misbehavior at pro games can be attributed to one thing: the sale of alcohol.

Through the years, there have been numerous, ugly episodes of fan misbehavior which have tainted the games we love to watch. Basketball is no exception. When players respond to unruly fans, things can spiral out of control quickly.

I was in Philadelphia with my father one night at the old Pallestra watching the Boston Celtics take on the Philadelphia 76ers when some idiot decided he was going to run across the floor and scuffle with Arnold “Red” Auerbach, the Celtics coach.

We sat in amazement as the “fan” reached for Red, attempting to bring him down. Now, make no mistake about it. The Celtics coach was no giant, but he was fiery and wiry, a combination of physical skills which kept him at bay from the would-be assailant long enough for the cavalry to arrive. You might say that the help-side defense was dressed in green, not the usual cavalry blue, and they were led by the team’s big center, Bill Russell.

Old Number 6 grabbed the guy by the throat, twisting him away from Auerbach. And then, all hell broke loose down on the floor.

Of course, for a young high school kid, visiting Philadelphia for a divinity school interview, it was something right out of the cinema. Cooler heads eventually prevailed, and by the time the real halftime show ended – trained poodles, as I recall – the Celtics and the Sixers settled down to some very good, well-played basketball.

Fan misbehavior was not uncommon in those days. In fact, a lot of basketball arenas nationwide were constructed with a wire cage around the court to prevent episodes such as the one my Dad and I witnessed in the City of Brotherly Love.

Originally, hoopsters were called cagers because in the early days of basketball, the participants, in essence, played in a cage.

As far as high school basketball in our state goes, we haven’t been completely immune from fan and player interaction of the volatile nature, either. In my own career, I can recall two ugly episodes which transpired in the eastern region. Although neither one deserves mention here, the fact remains that they were ugly and left a black eye on not only the programs involved, but also the participants.

I do, however, subscribe to the theory which states that society’s woes often filter into the local schools’ arenas of play. It then becomes more difficult for educators and coaches to teach value-oriented sportsmanship to all parties involved. Toss into that equation how hard it is to police adults who enter the gyms across our region, and you now have the makings of some pretty heady stuff for the local athletic director or coach to handle.

Many schools preach good sportsmanship to their crowds. Some schools print messages of good will on their game programs, while others invite parents and relatives of players to the school for a session on acceptable behavior by adults at their athletic contests.

Both the Maine Principals’ Association and most referee boards of the International Association of Approved Basketball Officials reward schools whose participants go the extra mile in acting like ladies and gentlemen while they’re playing basketball, with good sportsmanship banners.

Despite all the aforementioned effort, we’ve still got a ways to go.

Comparatively speaking, Maine remains head and shoulders above most states along these lines, but being the leader of the pack carries with it a certain amount of responsibility.

To parents, I say this: Remember the other players on the squad put in equal effort to your son or your daughter’s. Taunting or shouting at teammates to pass your kid the ball creates a tough situation for the player who is supposed to pass the ball and for your own son or daughter, who may be embarrassed by the whole episode.

To fans, I say this: Leave the referees alone. In all my years of coaching, I have never seen a certified board official enter the arena trying to hurt a particular team. Never.

To players, I say this: You are a small part of a larger athletic scheme of things. Respect that. Wear your uniforms with pride, for you represent much more than yourselves when you take the floor. Respect the officials and the calls that they make. On my turnover charts, we had a section for frowns. Unhappy with a call? It will cost you a lap in practice the next night. Be a good teammate. Enjoy what you’re doing. But never do anything to hurt the game.

To coaches, I say this: You are the behavioral barometer in that gym. People look to you to see how you react to a questionable call by the officials. Yes, these men and women do make mistakes. But so do you. As the coach, you stir the proverbial drink of crowd behavior. Rant and rave and act like an idiot, and pretty soon, you’ll have a team doing that, or worse, a bleacher full of fans agreeing with you and blaming the officials.

To referees, I say this: Make your calls, then continue on your way. Nothing irks this old coach more than to watch an official dragging his or her pivot foot while making a traveling call. I never saw those mechanics in a casebook. Don’t run a clinic, just ref the game.

To school officials, I say this: Prepare for all possibilities, not just some of them. If we’ve learned nothing else in recent days, the unexpected can happen.

To all parties, I close with this: Enjoy the games. High school basketball still remains the purest form of the sport. Let’s make the 2004-2005 season the best on record for all participants.

NEWS columnist Ron Brown, a retired high school basketball coach, can be reached at bdnsports@bangordailynews.net