Malice at the palace

[CR91]

Anyone catch the documentary on Netflix? Still can't believe what happened. Crazy re-living that.

[Barry Sears]

I just watched it.  That changed the Pacers season and several seasons afterward.  The punishments by the NBA were unfair and based upon edited video footage.  David Stern never saw all the video available, just what ESPN had broadcast, which was far from complete.

 

Still makes me mad to this day.  I've been a Pacers fan for over 50 years and that team was our best chance at an NBA title, and one $%&+@ Pistons fan took it away.

[aReggie7]

On 8/19/2021 at 2:07 PM, Barry Sears said:

Still makes me mad to this day.  I've been a Pacers fan for over 50 years and that team was our best chance at an NBA title, and one $%&+@ Pistons fan took it away.

 

Yeah I remember watching that game and couldn't believe what was happening.

 

I do think that team would have found a way to lose though even if the brawl didn't happen. Artest, Jackson, and Tinsley.....yikes. Too bad we will never know though.

 

It's just crazy to think how good that team was. The year before the brawl they won 61 games. That was after they lost Brad Miller in free agency for essentially Scot Pollard who didn't play much. Had Danny freaking Ainge not help gift wrap Rasheed Wallace to the Pistons during the 03-04 season then the Pacers easily win the east that year, imo. They probably beat the Lakers in the finals too.

 

Both those years, the one before the brawl and the one of the brawl, make me so frustrated as a fan just thinking about it. And Reggie Miller retiring with a ring is how he deserved to go out too. The opportunity was right there and those guys just screwed themselves out of it.

[Barry Sears]

After watching the show, I felt worst for Jermaine O'Neal.  His actions were in self-defense as fans threw objects and poured beer on the players.  It really curtailed his career in a lot of ways.  But, I see he is doing good work now.

 

No matter what Artest did, it caused controversy.  He laid on the scorer's table to try and calm down (according to him) and that was perceived as being disrespectful, so the fan threw the beer at him.  Not sure what to make of Jackson after watching.  Some of his actions were legit, but some could have been done differently.

 

In the end, the biggest loser in all of this was Reggie Miller as @ar7 pointed out.

 

With how things are set up now, the Pacers will never really be as close to an NBA title as they were those 2 years.  We can just hope they play well, win more than lose and are competitive each season.

[PuntersArePeopleToo]

5 hours ago, Barry Sears said:

After watching the show, I felt worst for Jermaine O'Neal.  His actions were in self-defense as fans threw objects and poured beer on the players.  It really curtailed his career in a lot of ways.  But, I see he is doing good work now.

 

No matter what Artest did, it caused controversy.  He laid on the scorer's table to try and calm down (according to him) and that was perceived as being disrespectful, so the fan threw the beer at him.  Not sure what to make of Jackson after watching.  Some of his actions were legit, but some could have been done differently.

 

In the end, the biggest loser in all of this was Reggie Miller as @ar7 pointed out.

 

With how things are set up now, the Pacers will never really be as close to an NBA title as they were those 2 years.  We can just hope they play well, win more than lose and are competitive each season.

As someone that wasn't following NBA until afterwards, and only ever hearing about the scuffle, my belief never changed, it was the fans fault. It is so often players do stuff like that on the court and the only difference is fans got involved. No fan, nothing happens. 

 

For me outside of Artest, I never really knew who was in it till a few years ago, so I only ever saw O'Neal as the first Pacers player I knew and had a jersey of

[NFLfan]

On 8/26/2021 at 2:23 PM, PuntersArePeopleToo said:

As someone that wasn't following NBA until afterwards, and only ever hearing about the scuffle, my belief never changed, it was the fans fault. It is so often players do stuff like that on the court and the only difference is fans got involved. No fan, nothing happens. 

 

For me outside of Artest, I never really knew who was in it till a few years ago, so I only ever saw O'Neal as the first Pacers player I knew and had a jersey of

 

As an outsider and not really a fan of the NBA, I blamed it almost completely on the fan. The players were clearly provoked. They are human beings, not robots. 

 

I have to see that documentary to see if my perspective changes. 

[PuntersArePeopleToo]

5 hours ago, NFLfan said:

 

As an outsider and not really a fan of the NBA, I blamed it almost completely on the fan. The players were clearly provoked. They are human beings, not robots. 

 

I have to see that documentary to see if my perspective changes. 

I think the Doc would reenforce that view. I really agree though, it was the fan, remove him, nothing else happens other than an on court scuffle (Wish Artest wasnt even in at that point, he laid on the table). Ya I could see artest getting 2-3 game suspension, The Pistons also should have been hammered though as it was their Arena that allowed it to happen to have fans be drunk and feel like they could do it

[landrus13]

I was only like 10 at the time. I don't remember much about it except the missed punch by O'Neal. Pacers got screwed by the NBA with their punishments. Pistons got off WAY TOO easy. I had no idea the Pacers were that much better than most teams in the NBA that year until I watched this documentary.