There are a few YouTubers who brought back the story of The Malice at The Palace but I disliked
their videos because they always have a quantitative approach (bring a lot of
useless information) and sacrifice quality (a clear, easy to follow storyline).
They fail at being consistent because
they fall victims to the new millennial trend of entertaining the uneducated
masses. In other words they go too far and ruin a story by forgetting the power of a message lays in its
simplicity.
2004 was still a
good year for NBA basketball. Not as great as the 90s but still competitive
with players still being loyal to their teams and listening to their coaches. There was some misinformation in the flash news but not as much mainstream media hyping up sports or
social media creating fake news like they are nowadays.
The team spirit was high back in the days indeed but...1. NBA players should be able to refrain themselves in these situations (and I am sure this is in their signed contract!), 2. the league should have pulled up 6 or 7 digits fines for the home team organization for not being able to secure the premises. So yeah, the real wrong doers of the brawl were 1. Ron Artest, 2. Detroit Pistons organization, and 3. the NBA. Historically, this went terribly wrong because the league sacrificed the whole Indiana Pacers team only to find a scapegoat.
Players taking part
in this incident were interviewed and everybody knows now the fight was caused
by the previous year playoffs elimination of Indiana which might have won that
year finals if that didn't happen in the Eastern Conference Finals. So
they were still upset about it and took revenge in this game where Ron Artest
was hyped up by Jamal Tinsley during that last free throw (Stephen Jackson
named it "putting a pack of batteries in his back").
An angry Ron
took it out on Ben Wallace who just lost his brother days before so was very
fragile mentally. That led to the fight although Ron Artest still denies he
cause it but admits it he was suffering of multiple personality disorder ("I was
hearing things and had at least 3 personalities at that time").
And...of
course that infamous beer from the stands and the loosen security at the arena.
Now the crazy thing is later in his career Ron Artest contacted the disgruntled
Detroit fan (John Green) who threw the beer following a $50 bet and...they have
become friends simply because Ron "doesn't like to hold
grudges". Maybe there is some peace in the world of...Metta after all.
The
NBA didn't take the blame nor punished the Detroit Pistons organization.
Instead they have found their scapegoat in the Indiana Pacers team's players
completely ignoring the huge amount of alcohol consumed by the Detroit fans at
the game who were basically rioting inside the Detroit arena.
This whole ghetto
style brawl had several consequences short and long term. It cost the league
and its players tens of millions of dollars that year. Indiana Pacers lost
their chance to win the league that year although they have come back strong in playoff time. It shaped for what is better - but probably worse - the
future of the NBA imposing strict regulations and bringing more hypocrisy to
their face (culminating with the 2019
China incident) and contributing to the widespread PC culture we live in.
YouTube comments
about the incident:
- All because some stupid uncivilized low life threw a beer can.
- I still blame the Pistons fan for this entire situation. You throw beer in another mans face, you deserve to get rocked.
- Piston fans throws beer at Artest, Artest fights back, Pistons fans surprised Pikachu face.
- If it never happened then there wouldn't be metta world peace.
- I don't think anyone can control their temper if they got a beer thrown on them.
- That fan in Detroit is literally the reason why the NBA rules went super strict and why the league is so soft now.
- This is why my dad calls them the Detroit Piss.
- I remember watching this on TV and I've never had so much adrenaline pumping while watching a sports game. It was insane!
- 12 year olds commenting today: "I watched it live"...an event that happened 15 years ago.
- I was born that day! No wonder I’m so aggressive sometimes.
Here is the full game on YouTube if the uploader still has it.
And the boxscore for the game: 2004.11.19~IND@DET (The Malice at the Palace)
