Malice at the Palace documentary: Another View

The Detroit Pistons are back in the national discussion, but not because they drafted Cade Cunningham. The streaming service Netflix has put up a new documentary on one of the more infamous incidents in team history: the ‘Malice at the Palace’

The doc has certainly stirred up old memories. I was asked to be on a 76ers podcast, to discuss it.

For those who don’t know, or were not around back then, this is what happened, in a nutshell:

In a November, 2004 game between Detroit and Indiana, with the game well in hand for the Pacers, Ron Artest gave a hard foul to the Pistons’ Ben Wallace, who did not appreciate it. Tensions escalated when Artest had a cup of beer thrown on him from a fan and he, joined by several teammates, went into the stands to attack fans.

The fact the game, between the two teams that met in the Eastern Conference finals the year before (which Detroit won in six), was nationally televised on ESPN, which blew up the incident event more.

There were suspensions (Wallace was the only Piston disciplined, and he got just a six-game suspension), spectators banned from the arena for life and some minor criminal convictions (only the guy who threw the cup got jail time). You can go here, for a full recap.

So how did the Netflix documentary handle ‘Malice at the Palace’? How did it portray Detroit Pistons fans and players?

The first thing you should know is, one of the Pacers involved in the melee, Jermaine O’Neal, is also an executive producer. Most of the documentary is about the how it affected the Indiana team, and the players involved.

The only Detroit player interviewed was Wallace, who came off very well. But basically the team was ignored.

There were a number of things that were glossed over that I found interesting, and enlightening. If you did not catch it quickly, they could have been forgotten, due to the main focus being on the Pacers players.

• There was a lot of ‘woe is us’,  the crux that the Pacers would have won the championship that year, if not for all the players suspensions. The small fact that Detroit went on to play Indiana that year in the second round of the playoffs, with the Pacers having everyone back by that time except Artest, and the Pistons beat them 4-2, just like the year before, is ignored.
• There was a lot about the mental problems Artest was having in the weeks leading up to the incident. He even says he was looking for a way to stop playing. New player Stephen Jackson, who was highly emotional, made the situation even more volatile. When Pacers general manager Donnie Walsh was asked why he didn’t do anything about it, he responded, with a bit of a shrug, “I thought we could win it that year.”

Which is the mindset of many, not just basketball, but most pro sports GMs. We are here to win and if the player is being a pain in the neck, but he helps us win, just suck it up. A lot of players, who have legitimate issues, get their problems shoved aside, so the team can win.

Later in their careers, Artest (now known as Metta World Peace) and Jackson would each be on NBA championship teams. Lesson? Yeah, talent wins out over everything.

Miller reveals NBA players secret on fights and fans get no money for acting out

Indiana Pacers great Reggie Miller, who was there but did not play in the game due to injury, talked about how, incidents like what happened with Wallace and Artest that night, are usually just  ‘play acting’ and players are really not looking to fight. After games, as most viewers can see, players from each teams usually intermix in a friendly manner. Many of them either played together on other teams, have the same agent, or know each other from the AAU circuit when they were younger.

Despite all the huffing and showboating, no one really is going to throw a punch to hurt someone. … except one time.

In 1977, the Lakers’ Kermit Washington punched the Rockets’ Rudy Tomjanovich during a scuffle between the teams that seriously injured him. He was suspended for 60 days. Since then, with all the money that would be lost due to a suspension, NBA players have pulled back from actually throwing a punch that would land on another player.

It is really, like Miller said, acting tough, but no one really getting hurt.

• The woman in charge of security talking about how she overheard Pistons fans who might have been involved, being held in a room after the game, talking about whether they could sue the players, or someone, and make some money.

That might be the most negative thing about Detroit in the film. It is inferred the fan who came onto the court and confronted Artest was doing it hoping for a payday. Instead he got arrested and convicted of a crime. Throwing stuff at players, even ones from the other team acting badly, just gets you hauled in by the police and probably banned for life from the arena.

Some fans still behave badly at games, but not for profit. There will be unpleasant consequences to come, even if they are too drunk to realize it at the time.

• It was mentioned several times how the whole incident would have been avoided if the cup had not been thrown at Artest. But, it was only mentioned fleetingly, that Artest, after the on-court ‘play acting’, was laying on his back on top of the scorer’s table. He basically was making himself a target.

If Artest had simply gone back to his bench, or sent to the locker room,  probably nothing else happens. He and Wallace just get a fine from the league office, ho hum, and it is forgotten.

Can you imagine if at a Lions game, Aaron Rodgers just laid out on a table near where a bunch of fans were. Something would probably happen.

Artest in the documentary said it was recommended he lay out after stressful events by a therapist, but I doubt he was told to do so in a very public spot. In no way am I absolving the fan for throwing the cup of liquid, but Artest made it easier for possible action from the stands.

In the end, it was for nothing. Artest actually attacked the fan next to the guy who threw the cup, mistakenly thinking he was the one. So he did not even get that satisfaction.

Changes since Malice at the Palace and final thoughts

A lot has changed since the Malice at the Palace. Security is much tighter around the court, it is harder for fans to be able to run onto it. Most arenas now provide canopies over the entrance where the players enter and exit. The Pacers players, going back to their locker room, were pelted with food and drinks in the tunnel leading away from the court.

And now, the players know not to just hop into the stands and start wailing on people if they have a problem with a fan, unless they want to lose a lot of money.

I have personally witnessed a couple times where players have called security to the bench, pointed out a fan who they believe had gone out of the boundaries of decency, and the fan was removed.

This past season there was an incident in Philadelphia where the Wizards’ Russell Westbrook going back to the locker room, had popcorn dumped on top of him. He got very upset and, it appeared, had to be restrained from entering the stands and going after that fan, like Artest in Malice at the Palace.

Now Westbrook makes $33 million a year. You really think he was going to give up all that money to hit a guy for throwing popcorn? In the end, Westbrook went to his locker room, and the fan was identified and stripped of his season tickets.

That might be the biggest lesson out of the documentary. The Malice at the Palace occurred 17 years ago, and we have never had an incident close to that since. Fans and players know the consequences now.

As for how Detroit was portrayed. I took it as a compliment when they talked about how passionate the fans were, and the opposing players about how they hated to go to The Palace due to the fans. As the Oakland County prosecutor pointed out, there were 20,000 fans at the game, only two really did anything that bad.

So you can go on Netflix and watch the documentary for entertainment value, but it really did not have much to do with Detroit.