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On this date in 2004, the Indiana Pacers and Detroit Pistons took part in arguably the most infamous brawl in NBA history. Late in the fourth quarter, Ron Artest and Ben Wallace got into an altercation. After being hit with a technical, Artest decided to lie on the scorer's table a mid-court. Soon after, a fan in front rows of the stands threw a cup of beer toward Ron Artest. The cup hit Artest, Artest ran up into the stands, and it all kicked off: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVvxTQD2PrI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ELKW_WMwV0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLUbycSKAqY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WO1ejvao9GU I'm including three videos just in case one or two are pulled. You're not going to find high-quality video of the fight on YouTube or other video sites, as the league has tried its hardest to make the fight disappear off the Internet. The fight did more than just give David Stern a huge PR nightmare to deal with. It basically destroyed the Pacers' season, one in which they were in good shape to challenge Detroit for the Eastern Conference championship. It also derailed the career of Ron Artest, who entered that game averaging something like 24/7/7 the first few weeks of Indiana's season. The fight featured a number of memorable moments: Artest running into the stands to go after the wrong guy. Jermaine O'Neal nearly taking someone's head off. Jim Gray choking up on the air. Ben Wallace's brother trying to fight people. Ron Artest actually wondering if he'd be suspended or not when it was all over. The fan who started the whole thing by hitting Artest with a cup of beer claiming he was being unfairly singled out. Less than a handful of police officers charged with trying to stop the entire melee. Bill Laimbeer just sitting around nonplussed as if he was unimpressed by the fighting going on around him. Larry Brown being Larry Brown. Two years ago, Grantland published an oral history of the fight. Some highlights: Stephen Jackson posted:I think a lot of us made a lot of selfish decisions that day. I made a selfish decision to stop trying to break it up and to confront Lindsey Hunter and Richard Hamilton. That was my selfish decision. Ron made a selfish decision by going into the stands. We all made selfish decisions, but at the same time, we were protecting each other. It’s kind of hard to see if that’s right or wrong.” Mark Monteith of the Indianapolis Star posted:“There were roughly half a dozen elements that caused that brawl to happen...If Artest doesn’t make that hard foul on Ben Wallace, it doesn’t happen. If Ben Wallace doesn’t react the way he did, it doesn’t happen. If the referees control the situation, it doesn’t happen. If Artest doesn’t go lay down on that scorer’s table, it doesn’t happen. If the fan doesn’t throw the beverage, it doesn’t happen. There was a continuation there, a succession of things. You take away any one of them and the whole thing doesn’t happen.” Sekou Smith posted:"With just under three minutes to play, Mark [Montieth] leaned over to me and said, 'Man, these fouls are getting harder and harder.' He just kept saying the refs have to get control of the game." Stephen Jackson posted:"Ben was the wrong person [to foul] because, if I’m not mistaken, his brother had just passed and he was going through some issues.5 I was guarding Ben, I let him score. I was trying to let the clock run out. And Ron just came from out of nowhere and just clobbered him. I’m like, “What the hell is going on?” I had no clue that was about to happen. When that happened, everything just happened so fast, man." " posted:"Multiple players from both teams kept pulling an enraged Wallace away from Artest, who eventually (and inexplicably) decided to lie on the scorer’s table as everything settled down. The slowness of the response — Wallace looming, teammates shoving, and referees debating — allowed the incident to escalate."[/quote"] Jim Gray posted:"The Pistons were the problem. It was the Pistons who initiated this, the Pistons fans and Wallace were the guys who were the aggressors here." quote:"A full 90 seconds after Wallace had shoved Artest, Artest remained lying on the scorer’s table as Detroit fans yelled obscenities at him. The 10 players who had been playing (O’Neal, Artest, Jackson, Tinsley, and Fred Jones for Indiana; Ben Wallace, Rasheed Wallace, Hamilton, Hunter, and Smush Parker for Detroit) and coaches from both teams huddled at midcourt — the concern was Wallace, who couldn’t be calmed down — with everyone else staying near their respective benches. For whatever reason, nobody ever pulled Artest off that table. A fed-up Wallace finally decided to throw an armband in Artest’s direction." quote:Jackson: It’s hard for any man to take something thrown at his face and not to retaliate. Jim Boyle, Pacers radio PbP posted:"Instinctively or reflexively, I did step up and Ronnie trampled right over me. I fractured five vertebrae. The thing I laugh about now is my wife says to me, “If you could have stopped Ronnie from going into the stands, none of this would have happened.” I say, “Well, Jesus, if I could have stopped Ron from going into the stands, I would be playing in the NFL.” My partner, Slick Leonard, was smarter than me — he moved out of the line of fire.13" quote:Artest charged into the stands to grab the offending cup thrower, pushed over the wrong fan (Michael Ryan), then stood over him and shook him with both hands. The fan who actually DID throw the cup, John Green, grabbed Artest from behind and tried to put him in a headlock. Another fan whipped a beer at Artest at close range, spraying Stephen Jackson, who retaliated with a wild punch. Meanwhile, Ben Wallace’s brother, David, just missed tagging Indiana’s Fred Jones with a haymaker, as players and coaches from both teams surged into the fray as peacemakers. Hall of Famer Bill Walton, who was announcing the game for ESPN, would later call the melee “the lowest point for me in 30 years with the NBA.” Here’s how many of the principals remember this sequence. Doreen Oklo, Auburn Hills (MI) Chief of Police posted:"We have zillions of security plans for the Palace, for all kinds of things. But none included a player going up in the stands. That just is not something anybody foresaw." quote:Artest was on top of me, pummeling me. He asked me, “Did you do it?” I said, “No, man. No!” Stephen Jackson posted:People don’t understand how it feels to be with a guy who you call your teammate and you’re with more than your family during the course of a season. How do you expect me not to go help him, even though he’s wrong at the time? Going in the stands is totally not right. As a youngster, you learn to be there for your teammates, but you’re never taught to go into the stands. I never thought I would be in a situation where I would have to go into the stands and actually help my teammate fight fans. But at that time, there’s no way I could have lived with myself knowing that my teammate is in the stands fighting and I’m not helping him. Jermaine O'Neal posted:"I had my own personal security guard that traveled with us. He was side-by-side protecting me. I look in the stands and I see people whaling off on players. I’m trying to get across the scorer’s table to get over there to help, and my security guy is holding me down. We turn around and people are trying to hit us on the floor. The first person I saw was [teammate] Fred Jones. Somebody was whaling on him from behind." Mike Brown posted:"I was getting hit while I was in the stands. Ron had grabbed the wrong guy, and the guy that actually threw the cup was hitting me from behind because I went to grab Ron to try and get Ron out of there. It was pure chaos." quote:There were only three police officers in the arena to handle things. They did a great job with what they had. Tim Donaghy posted:"It was just mayhem, to the point where you actually feared for your life. We didn’t know at that point if somebody was going to pull a gun or a knife. Fans were coming out onto the floor and challenging players to fights right out on the floor. It was at a level that I’ve never seen before." Mike Breen posted:"It was horrible on the other side, because the fans were coming down toward the altercation. But the fans on our side of the court [where they were broadcasting the game] were not. As it continued, now some of the fans on our side started to come down, and that’s when I was thinking, Oh my goodness. This could be the most disastrous fight in the history of sports." quote:Right in front of me are these two guys in Piston jerseys, [they] kind of walked up to the Pacers bench at the side of the court. Jim Gray posted:"That one guy would have gotten killed if Jermaine O’Neal would have hit him. He was lucky he slipped." quote:For that one moment you’re thinking, My God. He’s going to kill this guy. Jermaine O'Neal posted:"When I did it, when he hit the ground, everybody just kind of cleared out. All of a sudden, it wasn’t fun and games. It wasn’t “OK, let’s hurt the Pacers.” The people that were around us, they started to protect themselves. That’s what I was happy about. I don’t look at it that I’m happy that I slipped. I know a lot of people say that, but I’m never just trying to hurt somebody. But in that case, I’m just trying to protect myself and my teammates." quote:The sight of fans being punched by Jackson and O’Neal enraged Pistons fans even further — they kept booing and throwing things on the court. Everyone soon realized that Indiana’s players and coaches needed to be hustled toward the locker room as soon as possible. Unfortunately, that meant escorting them through the tunnel … right past many of those fuming fans. The other problem was Artest, who Breen said had “a look in his eye that’s very scary right now.” In one of the most unlikely moments of the night, NBA power broker William Wesley (a.k.a. “Worldwide Wes”) left his courtside seat to pull Artest away from Haddad and Shackleford. quote:I saw one person out of the corner of my eye to the left of my frame leaving and it was Artest. So I just stayed with him. He looked very bewildered, like, “What’s going on here?” Like he’d snapped, basically. quote:The only time I felt I was about to get hurt was when a policeman popped his pepper spray container and started shaking it up. Reggie Miller was pleading with him, “Please don’t. My suit costs x-hundred dollars.” Jermaine O'Neal posted:"The police are nowhere to be found for the first 10 minutes and then come in and try to pepper spray us." Mike Breen posted:"I felt like we were out there for an hour waiting for them to get the players off the court. Every time it appeared they had everything under control, another fight broke out. When the fans were able to get on the court — and not just one or two, there were a number of them because security was so worried about the scene in the stands — that’s when it was like, “Wow.” I’m not blaming the security, but they just didn’t know how to deal with it...There were chairs flying through and people taking pretty hard objects and just winging them at people’s heads. It’s amazing that there was nobody seriously hurt. Absolutely amazing." Jermaine O'Neal posted:"People are spitting. Objects are being thrown from the stands — brooms, the pan things that sweep the trash up, chairs. And for what? If we get hit in the head and we die, then what was the purpose of that? It was a heated rivalry; as much as I didn’t like the Pistons, I always respected coming there to play. We knew what we were going to get from the time we came on the bus and came out to warm up. Even pregame warm-ups, it was just mayhem. You get all the fans yelling and screaming. That’s what makes sports sports. You’ve got to love that. But beyond that, are we really being hated because we play basketball or play for an opposing rivalry team? That’s how deep it was." George Blaha, Pistons PbP posted:"Bill Laimbeer and I were broadcasting the game down by the Pistons bench. Everything happened on the other end of press row. And the reason I wasn’t particularly shook up about it is because Bill Laimbeer didn’t seem to be particularly bothered by it. He was kind of nonplussed by the whole thing." Boyle posted:"I had a big gash open over my head, which was nothing, it was superficial. But those forehead cuts really bleed. Ronnie was standing right next to me and he said, “Mark, what happened to you?” I said to Ronnie, “You trampled me.” He said, “Oh, oh. I didn’t even know. I’m very sorry.” And he was sorry. Ronnie was a sweetheart of a guy. He still is." Stephen Jackson posted:"After we calmed down, [Artest] looked at me like, “Jack, you think we going to get in trouble?” Jamaal Tinsley fell out laughing. I said, “Are you serious, bro? Trouble? Ron, we’ll be lucky if we have a freaking job.” That lets me know he wasn’t in his right mind, to ask that question." Scot Pollard posted:"That’s 100 percent true. We laughed our asses off about that. “Yeah, Ron. Yeah, there are going to be some problems, buddy. You hit a fan.” I couldn’t believe it. He was in shock that what he had just done was bad. I don’t know what his mentality is like on the inside, but outside looking in, you can sit there and say, “Wow. That’s trippy that somebody can go through that type of experience and wonder if there’s going to be repercussions.”" O'Neal after police officers came into arrest two Pacers players posted:"We said, “No, we’re not going nowhere. We’re going back to Indiana. We’re not coming with you. Talk to my lawyer.” That’s how we had to talk to them. I was one of the very first people they came after. I’m like, “What is this? What are y’all talking about? No, I’m not going with you.” I don’t understand. There’s people out there throwing drat near sledgehammers at us from God knows where hitting us in the face and body and everything. There’s blood on us. We’re bleeding." In the end... quote:The league acted swiftly the next day, with David Stern releasing a statement that started, “The events at last night’s game were shocking, repulsive, and inexcusable — a humiliation for everyone associated with the NBA. This demonstrates why our players must not enter the stands whatever the provocation or poisonous behavior of people attending the games. Our investigation is ongoing and I expect it to be completed by tomorrow evening.” Eventually, Stern suspended nine players without pay for a total of 146 games, costing them nearly $10 million in salaries (with Artest taking the biggest hit: $4.995 million). Counting the 13 playoff games he missed, Artest’s 86-game suspension remains the longest non-drug-related one in NBA history. But it was the league’s image that took the biggest hit. Big changes would come — swiftly — to the league’s alcohol policy and the policing of the barriers between players and fans. As Stern told the AP one year after the melee, his league learned the following lessons: “No. 1, players can’t go into the stands. They need to leave that to security and not get into vigilantism. No. 2, fans have to be held accountable because they can’t do anything they want just by virtue of buying a ticket. No. 3, we need to continue to review and update our procedures on security and crowd control.” Ron Artest posted:I still don’t believe I should have lost that much money. I would still like to have a million or something back. I ain’t the one who started it and I lost almost $7 million in investments and a couple of commercials and I didn’t even start it. quote:"On December 8, Oakland County prosecutors charged five Indiana players (O’Neal, Artest, Jackson, David Harrison, and Anthony Johnson) and five fans (John Green,32 William Paulson, Bryant Jackson, John Ackerman, and David Wallace) with assault and battery. Months of legal haggling followed. The players eventually pleaded no contest; only Green ended up serving jail time (30 days); everyone else received fines, probation, and community service sentences. All five fans were banned from attending Pistons games. Said prosecutor David Gorcyca, “I handled Nathaniel Abraham, supposedly the youngest murder defendant in history. I handled Jack Kevorkian. Yet this case, when it’s all said and done, this garnered more media attention worldwide than all of those others combined.”" The list of punishments:
The incident changed the way the NBA handles in-house security, and it had a negative effect on the Pacers for a number of years. Artest's career was never the same. O'Neal and Jackson took huge hits to their reputations. The incident overshadowed the Pistons' title defense. David Stern himself actually handed out harsher punishments than people initially expected. It's hard to believe that this happened ten years ago already. I don't know what exactly there is to discuss, but it's a pretty incredible moment in NBA history. Crazy Ted fucked around with this message at 01:01 on Nov 20, 2014 |
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Nov 20, 2014 00:56
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That Reggie quote about his suit is loving hilarious. With as much as the NBA changed in response to this, I wonder what would have happened if O'Neal didn't slip and actually did kill that guy
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Nov 20, 2014 01:16
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Aye Doc posted:With as much as the NBA changed in response to this, I wonder what would have happened if O'Neal didn't slip and actually did kill that guy
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Nov 20, 2014 01:19
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But atleast Ron got time to promote his album. Anyone else remember how before it happened, it was big news story that he wanted a week off during training camp for that? Man, the early 2000s were a special time
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Nov 20, 2014 01:20
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The Glumslinger posted:Man, the early 2000s were a special time
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Nov 20, 2014 01:22
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It probably still stings for Pacers fans to remember this because it's probably the best chance they had for a championship until last year.
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Nov 20, 2014 01:31
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Ben Wallace and his brother are shitheads
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Nov 20, 2014 01:43
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that Grantland article is wonderful and captures so many of the tiny stories with the perfect amount of detailquote:George Blaha (radio and television play-by-play, Pistons): Rick Mahorn, who does radio, was in the center of press row and went up to make sure that the gals, one of our official scorekeepers, wasn’t injured — and that one of our longtime statisticians, who is physically impaired a little bit, didn’t get hurt. I saw Ricky taking care of business.
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Nov 20, 2014 01:43
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WhyteRyce posted:Ben Wallace and his brother are shitheads
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Nov 20, 2014 01:50
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I die laughing every time I read that Grantland piece when Ron asks if he's going to get in trouble
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Nov 20, 2014 01:54
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Also Rick Mahorn was involved in both this and the Malice part II as immortalized in my av
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Nov 20, 2014 01:56
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I love Laimbeer totally unimpressed by what is going around him. That's always the best part for me.
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Nov 20, 2014 02:32
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I hold the refs the most responsible for letting players mug the poo poo out of each other all game long. INSPECTAH DECK posted:I always think Wallace gets too much blame. I mean, obviously a bad move on his part and he was a very dirty player in general, but no one would care about what he did if Artest/Jackson/O'Neal didn't do things 1000x worse. I dunno, Ben Wallace freaking out is half the reason that Artest was on the scorer's table in the first place, and flinging his armband at him probably set off other poo poo Lockback posted:I love Laimbeer totally unimpressed by what is going around him. That's always the best part for me. That's just a Tuesday for in Bill Laimbeer's Combat Assistant Basketball Coaching. The Glumslinger posted:But atleast Ron got time to promote his album. Anyone else remember how before it happened, it was big news story that he wanted a week off during training camp for that? He actually wanted a month off
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Nov 20, 2014 03:03
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Reminder that when he was on the Bulls, Ron Artest applied to work part-time at Circuit City for the employee discount.
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Nov 20, 2014 03:14
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Declan MacManus posted:I hold the refs the most responsible for letting players mug the poo poo out of each other all game long. Had to get that line right somehow. I always forget Donaghy was reffing that game and it just cement's this story as having literally everything going for it in NBA drama.
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Nov 20, 2014 03:15
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Crazy Ted posted:This also happened right around the time Kobe Bryant was accused of rape. Could you imagine if that had happened in 2013 instead of 2003 with Twitter and news aggregators to blow everything up? I work in news and if that had happened these days we would go loving BUCKWILD with it. It would be the most social media-rich story of the year: the incident filmed from thousands of viewpoints, racial vitriol on every platform, Ron Artest on Twitter. Also, great OP, really can't believe it has been ten years.
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Nov 20, 2014 03:25
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That night was awesome. It was covered all night and I needed that poo poo during my night shift days.
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Nov 20, 2014 03:32
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I was 13 and so loving excited that they fought the fans.
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Nov 20, 2014 03:36
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Wow 10 years have gone by, Indiana was loaded that year
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Nov 20, 2014 03:51
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Crazy Ted posted:Jermaine O'Neal nearly taking someone's head off. I wonder if there's video of this online anywhere. It was on TV the following days but I never saw it on Youtube. I remember seeing Jermaine do a running/slide punch on one or two really fat guys in Pistons jerseys who decided it would be good to try and fight the Pacers. edit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nw66OikTy9U edit (ignore stupid audio): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTujmRQ89xM Zogo fucked around with this message at 04:01 on Nov 20, 2014 |
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Nov 20, 2014 03:58
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Declan MacManus posted:I dunno, Ben Wallace freaking out is half the reason that Artest was on the scorer's table in the first place, and flinging his armband at him probably set off other poo poo What world do you live in where Ron Artest laying on the scorers table is even remotely a logical reaction to any action. I would say the action "I am going to lay down on this scorers table" is maybe 1% Wallace and 99% Artest's messed up logical flow.
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Nov 20, 2014 04:03
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It was so exciting to watch in real time. The very first hockey game I ever saw was a local minor league team and included a bench clearing brawl that ended the game in the first period. This was even better. Violence, violence and terror will rule.
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Nov 20, 2014 04:45
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I swear to god, every time Jim Gray is near something? Bad poo poo happens. gently caress that guy. I seem to recall a player participating in the brawl putting a headset on and was talking to one of the local stations covering the game. Am I remembering this correct? Would have loved to have seen what he had to say if it was true.
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Nov 20, 2014 04:56
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Lockback posted:What world do you live in where Ron Artest laying on the scorers table is even remotely a logical reaction to any action. I would say the action "I am going to lay down on this scorers table" is maybe 1% Wallace and 99% Artest's messed up logical flow. Artest was an idiot and did a bunch of lovely things that are inexcusable, but he was on the scorer's table in reaction to Ben Wallace mugging him (which was in reaction to Artest mugging him which I think was a reaction to Ben mugging him). You can almost see him making the right decision. Ben Wallace was on the court trying to start poo poo, so Artest removed himself from the situation while the Pistons and refs tried to corral Wallace. Only instead of walking away or telling Carlisle to take him out of the drat game he decided to make a spectacle of what a good guy he was by laying on the table and opening Pandora's box. So good initial thought bad execution I guess Declan MacManus posted:I hold the refs the most responsible for letting players mug the poo poo out of each other all game long. Holding a tight leash in a chippy game and quickly ejected players before poo poo escalates too quickly is like textbook game control stuff for officials. It was a blow out and poo poo was getting bad long before Artest went to lay down, there should have been some ejections or at least flagrants being called. But from the sound of the oral history, they were letting a bunch of hard fouls fly without even a whistle. WhyteRyce fucked around with this message at 05:08 on Nov 20, 2014 |
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Nov 20, 2014 05:05
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Well Tim had to make sure the over was covered
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Nov 20, 2014 05:08
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I seriously can't believe it's already been 10 years 
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Nov 20, 2014 06:09
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FuzzySkinner posted:I swear to god, every time Jim Gray is near something? Bad poo poo happens. That was Artest when he was on the scorer's table. Unfortunately the headset was muted.
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Nov 20, 2014 06:10
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Parlett316 posted:Well Tim had to make sure the over was covered I need blood sacrifice for fame to tie into donaghy and the malice in the palace so bad.
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Nov 20, 2014 06:11
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What are the odds (haha) that Tim was shaving points that night, and how loving funny would it be if that fight coat him a bunch of money since the game wasn't played out?
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Nov 20, 2014 06:26
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I didn't have a TV at the time, so this is one of those things that I know happened, I see tape of it happening, but it doesn't feel real to me because I saw it so far after the fact.
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Nov 20, 2014 06:26
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joshtothemaxx posted:What are the odds (haha) that Tim was shaving points that night, and how loving funny would it be if that fight coat him a bunch of money since the game wasn't played out? Rasheed Wallace was the most vocal critic of Donaghy before the evidence came out. So who knows. Donaghy posted:Which NBA star is most loathed by NBA officiating crews? This A.I. story comes to mind. Is he the one? Rasheed posted:“Hey,” said Wallace, “it lets people know that I ain’t a liar. I mean, that’s pretty much all I got to say about that. Everybody thought I was crazy and militant, but, hey, it came to light.”
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Nov 20, 2014 08:36
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R.D. Mangles posted:Reminder that when he was on the Bulls, Ron Artest applied to work part-time at Circuit City for the employee discount. He put Jerry Krause down as a reference on the application and the manager called him about it. When he was traded he tore down a giant framed picture of himself from the lobby of the Bulls practice facility and walked out with it. There's also a story about how he had a bad half, ran back to the locker room before anyone got there, got completely naked with the exception of his shoes, and cursed out everyone who came in the locker room at halftime.
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Nov 20, 2014 10:13
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I think the Malice at the Palace was a fine example of brotherhood and teamwork. Jackson and World Peace are the Vorenus and Pullo of the modern era, truly, and they suffered for it because this modern era can't have heroes. When Jackson went into the stands to help his beleagured teammate, he should have been celebrated, not suspended, but such is the corruption of modern times.
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Nov 20, 2014 12:46
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WhyteRyce posted:Artest was an idiot and did a bunch of lovely things that are inexcusable, but he was on the scorer's table in reaction to Ben Wallace mugging him (which was in reaction to Artest mugging him which I think was a reaction to Ben mugging him). You can almost see him making the right decision. Ben Wallace was on the court trying to start poo poo, so Artest removed himself from the situation while the Pistons and refs tried to corral Wallace. Only instead of walking away or telling Carlisle to take him out of the drat game he decided to make a spectacle of what a good guy he was by laying on the table and opening Pandora's box. So good initial thought bad execution I guess That's fair I guess, but I always saw Artest's actions as one of those "I'm going to act like I'm de-escalating/removing but really I'm going to keep goading" types of things. I didn't see the game live but it did look chippy as hell, and as has been repeated 15 times the Refs could have done 1000 things to simmer it down but didn't.
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Nov 20, 2014 16:42
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WhyteRyce posted:Ben Wallace and his brother are shitheads I get why they were raw. A death, especially of a family member who is not elderly can do that to a person. People react in different ways, and that was probably the wrong time to foul Ben hard.
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Nov 20, 2014 16:59
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Great OP. I remember I was on a plane to Israel during the incident. First thing I saw at Ben Gurion airport was footage of Artest and Jackson running into the stands... I thought I was hallucinating.
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Nov 20, 2014 17:08
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Then there was a wnba brawl like a week later.
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Nov 20, 2014 17:24
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See my avatar for Rick Mahorn looking like he's in a wind tunnel wearing Missy Elliott's suit for details about WNBA malice
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Nov 20, 2014 17:27
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RASHIBA WALLACE posted:Great OP. I remember I was on a plane to Israel during the incident. First thing I saw at Ben Gurion airport was footage of Artest and Jackson running into the stands... I thought I was hallucinating. I watched it live. Even though I was alone in my apartment, I kept looking around to ask "are you loving seeing this?!?" to empty air. I guess I must have known it was real but I clearly wasn't processing it well.
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Nov 20, 2014 17:55
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Lockback posted:That's fair I guess, but I always saw Artest's actions as one of those "I'm going to act like I'm de-escalating/removing but really I'm going to keep goading" types of things. I didn't see the game live but it did look chippy as hell, and as has been repeated 15 times the Refs could have done 1000 things to simmer it down but didn't. It's worth remembering that they were huge rivals at the time, and Indiana looked like they were a little bit better, because they could score a bit as well as defend. It was Detroit's Bad Boys 2 aka the Going to Work era (The motif was a steam whistle and a little "Dee- troit going to work!" jingle. Mason gave the team a real audio identity with BUH BUH BUH BUH Ben Wallace and stuff like that. And Indiana had just as strong a conception of itself as a tough hard working team. The refs let the game get out of control. But you're right, it's truly Artest's fault. His hard foul came out of nowhere and came as an absolutely weird attack that put everyone on edge. When he laid on the table it was like he was taunting both the team and the crowd. Like, I started this but you can't touch me, you can't confront me. The worst thing about the whole thing was the typical announcer school marm grandstanding. Everyone here is very bad and I would never do a bad thing. I'm good and I know of morals. It reminds me of Joe Buck being shocked and appalled that Randy Moss would pretend to show his butt.
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Nov 20, 2014 18:14
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