On August 10, Netflix released the first of a five-part documentary series revolving around the untold stories of major sports events. With their first installment, the streaming service focused on quite possibly the grimmest moment in Detroit Pistons history, the ‘Malice at the Palace‘.
One of the executive producers is former Indiana Pacers player Jermaine O’Neal, so be prepared for a lot of Pacers reaction in this.
The Nov. 19, 2004 brawl in the early days of the NBA season is well known amongst Detroit sports fans and all basketball fans alike. But when two of the league’s grittiest teams in the Pistons and the Indiana Pacers matched up on this fateful night, no one expected what would unfold.
The Pacers were on course to defeat Detroit in blowout fashion in the season’s first matchup between the Central Division rivals. Late in the game Pacers forward Ron Artest (now known as Metta Sandiford-Artest,) committed a hard foul against Pistons center Ben Wallace, as the four-time defensive player of the year drove into the lane for a layup.
Wallace took exception to the foul, as the game was as good as over at that point. Wallace retaliated with a hard shove on Artest.
A skirmish quickly developed on the court and, through all the commotion, a fan threw a drink from the stands onto Artest who was laying on the scorers’ table. In that moment, what would have just been a skirmish on the court between two rival teams exploded into a brawl between players and fans.
Untold: Malice at the Palace has a runtime of an hour and nine minutes. While the story of the Malice at the Palace is no secret to anyone (you can watch the actual incident on YouTube), director Floyd Russ shifts the perspective mainly towards the Pacers players involved in the melee. Pacers players Artest, Jermaine O’Neal, Stephen Jackson, and Reggie Miller receive the majority of screen time with their interviews.
Along with the Pacers players, Wallace, Oakland County Prosecutor David Gorcyca, and many others involved in the brawl, and the ensuing legal cases. share their stories.
Like many Netflix documentaries nowadays, Untold is a mixed bag of really good content along with unnecessary padding to extend the runtime.
The documentary does a great job of telling the story from perspectives most fans have not heard yet, but it also misses out on many opportunities to add context in favor of focusing on the relationships between the Pacers’ stars.
Malice at the Palace documentary: Good and bad
The director, Russ, relies very heavily on building up the relationship between O’Neal, Artest, and Miller. The focus also heavily favors O’Neal, not surprising since he served as an executive producer for the documentary.
Here lies the first missed opportunity of the documentary. Artest is the real story from the Pacers side of the Malice at the Palace, not O’Neal. He literally threw the first punch.
But the documentary glances over Artest throughout much of its runtime. This is unfortunate because, in the brief glimpses we get of Artest talking about himself and the brawl, a lot of great information needed to be elaborated on.
There is a brief moment where Artest spoke about the anxiety and mental health issues he was facing going into the 2004-05 season. But from that portion of the interview, all the audience is told is that Artest was seeing a therapist and it was hard to control his emotions.
Later on in his career, Artest (then known as Metta World Peace) was a key member of the Los Angeles Lakers during the later stages of the Kobe Bryant era.
Russ missed a great opportunity for his documentary to really dig into Artest’s mental health and how it was affecting his personality, relationships with teammates, and overall temperament. Instead, the doc opts to spend its time focusing on O’Neal (the executive producer) and his path to NBA stardom.
The first 25 minutes of the documentary are dedicated to introducing the four Pacers to the audience. O’Neal receives the majority of this time focusing on him being drafted out of high school to the Portland Trail Blazers. He eventually gets traded to the Pacers, and his career begins to take off.
With brief glances over the careers of Artest and Miller, the documentary then shifts its focus to the 2004 Eastern Conference finals matchup between the Pacers and Pistons. In yet another missed opportunity, the documentary focuses on Indiana’s stars sulking over how they thought they deserved to win, instead of the brewing rivalry between the two teams.
The 2004 Eastern Conference finals would have been a great way to set up the physical style of play both teams employed. It would have also been the perfect way to set up the animosity building between the two teams. Instead, it chooses to focus on Miller and O’Neal sulking over a missed opportunity for a championship.
(Pistons history note: That was the ‘Goin to Work’ team that, after knocking off the Pacers, crushed the far more talented Shaq and Kobe’ Lakers in the finals.)
Most of the issues with this documentary come in the first 25 minutes of runtime. There is a lot of padding in the first third of the doc. It takes 25 minutes to introduce the players involved, when it really could have been done in 10 minutes or less.
It is unfortunate, because elaborating on Artest’s mental health issues and the brewing physicality between the Pacers and Pistons would have made for a much stronger opening, than the long, drawn-out introductions of O’Neal’s and Miller’s careers.
Luckily for the viewers, the documentary really shines through once it finally gets to the events on Nov. 19, 2004.
The actual Malice at the Palace well done
Once the first 25 minutes pass, the documentary takes a leap in the quality of storytelling. A big part of is that the focus finally shifts away from unnecessary information about O’Neal, Miller, and the Pacers building their team. Now the focus comes towards the brawl and its aftermath.
The players are able to discuss what they were feeling and thinking step-by-step throughout the brawl. This is a great strength of the documentary. Jackson and Artest especially give great information, and perspective, to what was happening during the brawl.
The documentary expands its perspectives during the brawl as well. Palace security, Auburn Hills police officers, and referee Tim Donaghy (who is famous for other things) were all able to share their experience with what occurred as well. Expanding the perspectives shows just how much of a mess the entire brawl was. Players’ narratives conflict, with those of security and police.
Having so many conflicting stories also serves to show the audience that the whole truth of what happened will never truly be uncovered.
The documentary’s final act is very strong as well. The end focuses on the media reaction and the legal cases that ensued.
The players were able to speak their minds about how the media and the NBA reacted to the brawl. To the players, a lot of their actions came in self-defense. They took exception to the media and league demonizing them for their actions.
The documentary does a good job of showing that there is some merit to their claim – without completely exonerating them. O’Neal and Jackson especially took issue with media cherry-picking the clips they chose to put on TV, and labeling them as thugs.
The legal cases involving the prosecutor, David Gorcycla, is also a very strong moment in the documentary. Gorcycla does a very good job of explaining where he thinks the majority of the blame should fall. He also showed to be very impartial.
There is a lot of good content in the second and third acts of Untold. Spoiling all of the information would be a disservice to its filmmakers.
The documentary is worth watching for players’ expressing their thoughts during the brawl and Gorcycla talking about the legal cases alone.
But Untold falls into the same traps that many Netflix documentaries do. It is drawn out way longer than it needs to be. There is a lot of filler, when there’s other valuable information that could be expanded upon instead. But the documentary does have plenty of strong moments as well.
While the whole truth of what happened during the Malice at the Palace will always remain shrouded in mystery, Untold does a great job of adding new perspectives to the story.