In terms of the play itself (and not Another Brother's race driven agenda), I would say that Sheffield's reaction was very much instinctive. Artest's reaction took a little time to develop. I thought Sheffield showed restraint, whereas Artest did not. Sheffield thought he was punched, and reacted to that. Do I think Sheffield is a good person? Of course not. However, I thought that his reaction last night wasn't worthy of suspension. Was it wrong? Yes, but I'd chalk it up more to human nature/instinct than to bad intentions.
Trader_J, if you could have posted this (without the silly comment about AB), instead of the earlier comment, which painted a bad picture with an extremely broad brush (to put it mildly), I would have commended your post. How often have I done that?? You had to ruin the moment! Keep D&D Civil!! (I think I've typed this about a thousand times now... )