DETROIT – Nov. 19 marks 20 years since the Malice at the Palace between the defending NBA Champion Detroit Pistons and the Indiana Pacers.
It was the first rematch of the 2004 Eastern Conference Finals that turned into one of the most infamous moments in NBA history.
“The Pacers got a big night from Ron Artest,” said Pistons broadcaster George Blaha. “For instance, before he made a couple of bad mistakes and but, you know, they had a heck of a team, Jermaine O’Neal in the middle and they were dominant that night. They had a significant lead late in the game.”
“The Pacers looked like every bit, not the equal; they looked like a better team than the Detroit Pistons. They were more physical; they were more efficient, and they were more interested and more motivated. And that was all before everything got bad,” said Senior NBA writer Vincent Goodwill of Yahoo Sports.
“I’ll just say this, there would be no Malice at the Palace had Ron Artest decided he wanted to fight Ben Wallace,” Blaha said. “Instead of that, he went laid down on the scores table. He wanted no part of Ben, and I don’t blame him.”
“What I remember was that it was only two minutes like you think of all the things that you remember happening from Ron Artest going to sit on the scores table and Reggie Miller, who did not play in that game, Reggie Miller pat him on his chest and trying to sort of keep him calm, to the cup of beer being thrown at him, to everything that happened after that. It took two minutes,” Goodwill said.
“It was nuts,” said sports radio personality Mike Stone. “It was obviously a moment that will forever live in infamy in a bad way. Detroit got a horrible national reputation. People were all over Detroit for what happened because the fans went overboard. Butt to it was one of the craziest things I ever seen.”
“I was in the room watching some video, and in one of these pictures here, I could see where he had John Green who had his hat on,” said former Oakland County Prosecutor David Gorcyca. “It was a clip where it came off. And I said, ‘Stop that.’ And I said, ‘Roll it back.’ And I looked at it and said, ‘I know who it is. It’s John Green, my former neighbor.’ So I ended up identifying him and telling him, ‘Please, go out and issue a warrant and arrest him.’”
“We’re still talking about it 20 years later. And I mean, it was significant. I don’t think the NBA could have hoped that people would ignore it. And, you know, you always hate to think what would happen if the players and the fans got into it, and it did happen,” Blaha said.
The Malice at the Palace resulted in player suspensions totaling 146 games.
Those suspended players lost a combined $11.5 million.
Artest’s suspension of 86 games is the longest suspension ever handed out by the NBA for an on-court incident.
