A trip down memory lane - Malice at the Palace 15 years ago today

[jbpats]

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/inside-the-malice-at-the-palace-154145992.html

I can't believe it's been 15 years, i remember this fight like it was yesterday, it was absolute chaos. Artest and Steven Jackson should have been banned from the NBA IMO.

Lots of negative impacts from this fight, i feel the NBA got much softer after it happened in fear it could happen again.

[Amonkey]

I remember that game as I was watching it live, well, sort of. We were having a party and I had just gone to one of the rooms to get more red cups and the TV was on. As I walked in, the whole thing happened. As I called more people in, we were just watching in disbelief. It became a good topic of conversation in the party.

[GreenFaith1819]

Both Metta and Stephen Jackson turned things around after that.

To go from rock bottom to where they are now? Hats off to both of them.

[Donoghus]

That Indiana team was probably a Finals team if this doesn't go down.  And quite possibly, Miller walks off into the sunset with an NBA title.

That was a deep, talented squad.

[csfansince60s]

 This was the original malice in the palace that I remember, circa 1949!

https://youtu.be/v5VhkCwxIE0

 The stooges were the best!

[csfansince60s]

Double post… Sorry

[bdm860]

I remember that game as I was watching it live, well, sort of.

I remember where I was.  Living in Dallas me and my roommate had gone to a Mavericks game that night (had we not gone to that game, probably would have been home watching Pistons/Pacers as we were both big NBA fans).  Listening to sports radio on the way back home, they were talking about how the Pacers/Pistons game was called due to a fight that involved fans.  We were both like, wow it must have been pretty bad if they called the game over it.  They kept talking about it, and we just thought must have been a pretty good fight, can't wait to get home and see it.  Had seen players fight with fans before (like Dodgers vs Cubs fan) and was just picturing something like that.

Turned on ESPN as soon as we got home, and just sat in awe for like the next hour, watching replays after replays (even channels like MSNBC and CNN were covering it).  Crazy beyond our wildest imaginations.

I do remember this though, that people rarely talk about, the ESPN analysts were defending the players.   They were talking about maybe 10 game suspensions for Artest/Jackson (remember unprecedented event). From wikipedia:

In the post-game commentary on ESPN's NBA Shootaround, ESPN's studio analysts blamed the Pistons' fans and not the players. John Saunders referred to the fans as "a bunch of punks",[41] and Tim Legler said that "the fans crossed the line".

Here's a USA Today article which talks about how an ESPN VP had to call the analysts up to scold them for their initial take of defending the players and blaming the fans.

Here's an article Legler wrote the next day for ESPN:

There's no doubt that hefty suspensions will come down for this horrible incident. Wallace is going to get at least two games for the initial shove and Artest is going to get some games for going into the stands and grabbing a fan. But Jackson is probably going to get the biggest suspension because he threw the first punch in the stands at a fan, which triggered the aftermath of the initial altercation.

Remember before this time, besides drugs, there had only been a handful of suspensions for more than a couple of games:
68 games - Sprewell for choking his coach in practice
60 days (which turned out to be 27 games) - Kermit Washington for almost killing Rudy T with a punch
11 games - Rodman for kicking a cameraman
10 games - Vernon Maxwell for going into the stands and punching a fan.
7 games - Van Exel pushed a ref
6 games - Rodman headbutted a ref

That's it.  Barkley spit on a fan, ya that was only a 1 game suspension back then.  The Bird/Dr. J fight, nobody was even suspended for that.

Tons of coverage everywhere over the next week.  Remember the pretty racists undertones from non-sport fan co-workers talking about those animals.