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It was my junior year of college at Indiana University and I just arrived home on the Friday night before Thanksgiving. It was almost 11 p.m. and I threw my stinky college laundry in the washing machine and turned on the TV at my parents’ house to catch the end of the basketball game between the Indiana Pacers and the Detroit Pistons.
I’ll never forget seeing the the last minute of that rivalry game.
For those that don’t remember, this is what happened on Nov. 19, 2004:
My dad had a TiVo unit set up on his television and was recording the game. We rewinded it again and again. There was so much to watch. It was very sad but fascinating. Ron Artest leaping into the stands. Jermaine O’Neal sliding in for the uppercut. Jamaal Tinsley with the dustpan. Stephen Jackson shouting, “We ride together!”
My dad and I broke that thing down like it was the Zapruder film.
A few months later, I wrote an article for my college newspaper about this incident. Turns out, Artest’s little brother was in my astronomy class at IU and he eagerly accepted my interview request. Ron was instructed to not do any interviews (especially after his nightmare of an interview on the “Today Show” when he kept trying to push his album). But I did get to speak with Ron’s father and mother and the resulting article ended up winning some college journalism awards (and even earned me a tiny bit of money).
"He's not a thug. He's not a monster. They don't know much about him. They could learn a lot about him," Ron Artest Sr., father of the NBA star, told me for the article. "They saw him in the brawl in Detroit and they make judgments. Ron didn't start any of that. If you judge him on this, then you don't know Ron Artest. He's a good man. He loves his kids. They don't really ask the right people how he is. He's not a thug or a criminal. Growing up in Queens, he never got into a fights."
But the truth is that Ron Artest — fairly or unfairly — will be forever judged by this incident. And so have some of his teammates.
A new 68-minute Netflix documentary, “Malice at the Palace” (part of the new “Untold” series of films on the streaming giant from the makers of “Wild Wild Country”) explores the lasting effect that this brawl had, not only on Artest, but on his teammates who also received suspensions for jumping into the melee.
The documentary, which debuts on Aug. 10, focuses especially on Jermaine O’Neal, the power forward who was at the height of his abilities when the fight occurred.
Prior to the brawl, O’Neal had just made three straight All-Star Games and three straight All-NBA teams. He even earned a few MVP votes as he kept improving his statistics and win totals every year. He was really, really good.
The year before the brawl, the Pacers had the best record in the NBA and lost to the eventual-champion Detroit Pistons in the Eastern Conference finals. They came back the next year looking even better with the addition of sharpshooter Stephen Jackson.
The Pacers had a 6-2 record when they traveled to the 4-3 Pistons for the anticipated November matchup and Indiana thumped them on the court. The team looked legit. Artest, always a great defensive player, was slashing to the basket and hitting perimeter shots.
Artest had 17 points in the first quarter alone and the Pacers built up a 93–79 lead with 3:52 remaining in the game. It was a blowout.
Yet each team kept in all of their starters, which was strange. Nobody let up on defense and the game was super physical.
In the documentary it was revealed that Pacers point guard Jamaal Tinsely — who does not appear on camera — whispered in Artest’s ear: “Now you can get your foul” with 45.9 seconds left in the game.
Most NBA fans remember what happened next. A shoving match turned into hot tempers and it all seemed to be cooling off until a beer flew in from the stands and hit Artest. The loose-cannon unleashed his rage in an insane incident that was a black eye for the league.
That night changed everything, not only for the Pacer players involved, but for the fans as well.
I think that was the moment that a lot of longtime Pacers fans stopped watching.
Some were disgusted by the players’ behavior.
Some just lost interest because the team never truly competed for a title again. Yes, the team made back-to-back Eastern Conference finals with Paul George and Roy Hibbert in 2012-13 and 2013-14, but they couldn’t get past LeBron and the Heat and the window closed rather quickly for that team. Those teams were never as good as the Reggie/Artest/O’Neal ones.
My dad was one of those fans. I have many fond memories when I was younger watching the Reggie Miller/Jalen Rose/Mark Jackson teams. Probably the best NBA game I ever watched in person was a 120-180 overtime loss to the Lakers in the 2000 Finals, in which Miller scored 35 points. It was just me and my dad, sitting in dead last row of Conseco Fieldhouse with rain pouring on the arena windows just behind our heads.
My dad used to never miss a Pacers game. Now he probably can’t name two players on our roster. The enthusiasm is just gone and the brawl in Detroit was the turning point.
My love for the Pacers has dwindled too but I’ll still check box scores on ESPN. Nostalgia for the team still lives in me because of watching those games with my dad.
That night was also a turning point for Jermaine O’Neal. He was one of the best players in the league when the brawl opened and then he never was the same. He had two more injury-plagued seasons in Indiana until he was traded to Toronto where he lasted one season before playing for four more teams in five uneventful years.
It’s one of the biggest what-if’s in NBA history, along with “What if Len Bias didn’t die?” “What if Portland would have drafted Michael Jordan?” and “What if Stern never vetoed the Chris Paul trade to the Lakers?”
If that beer doesn’t get thrown, do the Pacers win the title? Do we now consider O’Neal to be one of the best to ever play the game?
“If we’re going to talk about it, let’s tell a story,” said Jermaine O’Neal. “Not just about a brawl, but what it did to cities and organizations, to families.”
Let’s just get this out here: Artest was wrong to go into the stands and put his hands on a fan. Yes, he had mental health problems that went undiscussed. Yes, he was provoked. But that doesn’t give you a free pass to use violence.
I do wonder how today’s audiences would have reacted to the brawl. We seem to be more aware of mental health issues for athletes with high-level examples coming from Andrew Luck and Simone Biles. We also understand the inappropriate attitude that fans can have at games. The NBA took action immediately when a Utah Jazz recently yelled a racial slur at Russell Westbrook.
Artest ended up fine in the end. He lost an entire season but after jumping from Sacramento to Houston to the Lakers, he ended up winning an NBA title under his new name Metta World Peace. He received his redemption.
Jackson, the hotheaded guard who leaped into the stands to defend Artest, had previously won a title with San Antonio and he experienced greater success away from the Pacers as a high-volume scorer for the Golden State Warriors.
Reggie Miller never won a title, which is sad, but he still was inducted into the Hall of Fame. His legacy was already somewhat secure.
But O’Neal suffered the most. He could have been considered an all-time great. Now he’s probably won’t even make the Hall of Fame. To many, he’s been forgotten.
He received no redemption story and so it’s understandable why he wants to tell his tale in this new Netflix documentary.
“It hurt us, and it became a cultural conversation,” O’Neal said. “And that situation is what, to me, needs to be talked about. There’s a lot of great people that had to suffer through that. And I think it’s important to people that have been here, that have been loyal fans, to get the fair shot on getting to understand and see what that is.”
Director Floyd Russ does a good job recapping the events of 17 years ago while putting it into proper context. He doesn’t let anyone off of the hook and includes criticisms of Artest and others involved. Yet he shares the players’ side of the story that was never truly emphasized in the media. He paints a full picture of a complicated situation.
It’s important to note that O’Neal — who was charged criminally for a punch he threw — was cleared of all charges by a judge. Nobody really remembers that part of the story.
Russ makes the documentary O’Neal’s story and he forces viewers to really consider the power forward’s NBA legacy.
The movie could have dug deeper on a few topics and some viewers might be disappointed that O’Neal is given far more airtime than Artest, but overall this is a solid documentary worth watching. Pistons fans will be annoyed by the one-sided viewpoint and if you don’t like the NBA at all you won’t be interested in this one. But for Pacers fans and people who watched this brawl when it happened, this is a must watch.
Really, this movie is a story of a man (O’Neal) who became the unfortunate victim of a media narrative that painted athletes as thugs.
One night. One fight. It can change a career. It can change a life.
It’s always interesting to ask “What if?” and in O’Neal’s case it’s also quite heartbreaking to do so.
When the documentary is over, you feel for him. You really do.
I highly recommend checking this one out when it hits Netflix on Aug. 10.
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