Basketbrawl–who’s the alcoholic?
Roughly 80% of what’s “news” wouldn’t be were it not for alcohol or other drug addicts. So, whenever I hear a news story, I ask, “who’s the addict?”
In the case of the recent NBA rumble, I first looked to Ron Artest. He clearly overreacted to the beer tossing incident and he’s been required to attend anger management classes. This indicates alcohol or other drug addiction, even if he wasn’t high at the time. The fact that he reportedly is a “nice guy” does not innoculate him from alcoholism; quite the contrary, the Jekyll and Hyde aspect to the overall behaviors supports the idea. However, so far, I can find nothing concrete on his drinking or using behaviors.
On the other hand, there is plenty on the person who allegedly threw the beer: John Green. He’s had three DUIs and has a rap sheet including assault and writing bad checks. The latter two crimes indicate an 80% probability of alcoholism; add in the DUIs and we’re as near as we can ever get to 100% without the alcoholic saying, “Thank God I’m an alcoholic, because when I was drinking, I wasn’t.”
Alcoholics cannot drink without acting badly some of the time. John Green was on probation from his third DUI and had been ordered by a judge to refrain from drinking. John Green was drinking beer. John Green acted badly. John Green is the alcoholic who really got things going in the melee. I suspect alcoholism behind every bad “crowd” behavior. John Green is just one more tragic example of an instigator for whom there have likely been hundreds of incidents for which close persons could have said, “no more,” but did not.