After seeing the Pistons/Lakers fiasco on Friday, I got to thinking… What are the craziest & most bizarre things that I’ve seen while watching sports in my lifetime? I came up with five that stood out in my mind, not necessarily in any order, but all of which made my jaw drop.

1. Ron Artest, Stephen Jackson, and Jermaine O’Neal vs. Detroit Piston fans

This was unbelievable. After all Artest has been through recently, you would think he would think twice before doing anything at all, including jumping into the crowd and going after a fan – the man is just a few cells short of a brain. We all knew Detroit fans were capable of stooping to this level, and they can definitely be blamed for being idiots, but had Artest not gone into the stands nothing would have happened. The look on that one fan’s face was priceless as RA jumped over the scorer’s table. He went from amused to terrified in .32 seconds.

Remember Jimmy Kimmel’s “you can’t spell Detroit without r-i-o-t” comment after the Pistons won the NBA title? It’s dated now, but check out this article from The Brushback (The Onion of sports news). It’s not true, but still funny.

2. Yankees vs. Red Sox, 2003 ALCS.

This series had everything: Clemens vs. Manny, Pedro vs. Kareem Garcia, Pedro vs. Don Zimmer, Relief pitchers vs. grounds crewman, and Aaron Boone vs. a mediocre Tim Wakefield knuckleball.

The 2003 ALCS is the best sports series I’ve ever seen in my entire life, and Game 7 is the best single game. As a Yankee fan, this ranks up there, if not above, all 4 World Series titles.

3. Mike Tyson vs. Evander Holyfield’s Ear

I can remember just being confused/impressed when Iron Mike took a chunk out of Evander. I’m not sure that my teeth are even capable of something like that. As a result, when Tyson said he was going to eat Lennox Lewis’s children, I believed every word.

4. Nolan Ryan vs. Robin Ventura’s face

I was like 10 or 11 at the time, but I can remember this slugfest like it was yesterday. A 26-year old Ventura decides to take a ride on the 47-year old Ryan Express, charging the mound and subsequently getting annihilated in the process. Ryan just stood there as he charged and then put him in a headlock and repeatedly bludgeoned the dignity right out of the White Sox infielder.

5. Super Bowl XXX(VIII)’s Nipplegate

It lasted all of half a second, but Janet Jackson’s “wardrobe malfunction” during the halftime show may have caused the most uproar per actual event duration in the history of sports. I’m not sure which was more shocking, the fact that it happened or the fact that they tried to pass it off as an accident.