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[commentator] And Wallace is fouled. And Wallace is-- Oh! Wallace!
Right on Artest!
This has potentially serious… [continues indistinctly]
[droning music plays]
[droning intensifies]
[droning continues intensifying]
[droning stops]
[cold electronic music plays]
[man over radio] It's time for the NBA to stop pretending.
Call it the TBA, the Thug Basketball Association.
These guys never had to follow the rules. They are prima donna athletes.
[disturbing droning music]
I couldn't believe what was going on.
It was an iconic brawl.
Unprofessional.
Absolutely unprofessional.
[droning continues]
It's hard to explain to people from suburban America.
Ron Artest just went nuts.
He does have psychological problems.
We ride together, fam!
Stephen Jackson deserved the most severe penalty.
I'm never talking about this shit again. Can you get that on camera?
It was way too much pressure for me. Way--
I felt I was trying to escape, to find any way to escape.
Pressure on the NBA to clean up its ranks,
send a message that these guys are not a bunch of thugs.
If you actually knew what happened,
you actually knew the effects that it had on everybody…
[tense music playing]
…you wouldn't even be asking questions.
I want the story out there. What happened? Go frame by frame.
[tense music continues]
[O'Neal] Show people all the footage.
Then when it's told, you make your own conclusion on what it is.
[cold electronic music playing]
["Your Sweet Love" by Lee Hazlewood plays]
♪ Stranger's arms reach out ♪
♪ To me ♪
♪ 'Cause they know ♪
♪ I'm so lonely ♪
♪ Then my mind goes back ♪
♪ To you ♪
♪ And your sweet love ♪
♪ Sees me through ♪
-[song fades] -[insects chirping]
[heavy breaths]
[static crackling]
[tense music playing]
[crowd booing and yelling angrily]
[indistinct yelling]
All right, all right, all right, I'm good. I can walk!
-Okay, fine. -I can walk!
Okay, all right.
We ride together, fam!
[indistinct yelling]
[indistinct]
[O'Neal] Once we got to the locker room, I remember just sitting down,
and I sat there for a while, and I sat…
I literally sat in my uniform.
And my phone just vibrating. Like, it's going off.
My wife calling me, my mother, my brother, friends calling me.
I think I had over a hundred text messages.
My adrenaline's still pumping.
I'm just sitting there trying to calm down, man.
Just trying to calm down. I'm still in fight mode.
In my head, I'm like, "You're done."
"There's no way-- you might not ever play again."
"Start thinking about something else."
[siren wailing]
Thanks, I appreciate it.
[reporter] A stretcher taking away an injured fan.
An ambulance on the scene with flashing lights and victims inside.
This is what became of the Pistons-Pacers game
at the Palace of Auburn Hills.
But everyone's saying it's a black eye for Detroit
and pointing the finger at some particular Pacers players.
[O'Neal] When I got home,
I'm up all night looking at this.
[newswoman] We think there have to be special rules in these sports arenas,
and we think we have to have kid gloves and treat these zillion-dollar athletes
as if they're different and special.
Too many players in this league
whose actions and attitudes bespeak kind of a thug mentality.
[O'Neal] I just remember watching TV,
and now I'm thinking about all the work that I put in as a pro player
to get to the point I've gotten to.
Everything you worked for,
in a split moment. [snaps fingers]
Getting out of my position of how I grew up
in Columbia, South Carolina
put me in a position to look at life differently.
They flew the Confederate flag on the state house
until as recently as three or four years ago.
[somber music playing]
You make decisions growing up because your environment is that.
Your environment states that's what you should be doing,
but basketball became that safe haven for me
to, you know, not go down the road that many do.
[somber music continues]
The National Basketball Association draft of new talent is coming up on Wednesday.
This year's crop is younger than ever.
[newsman] One high school senior, Jermaine O'Neal,
thinks he's ready to play in the NBA.
[announcer] Jermaine O'Neal!
[newsman] O'Neal, an All-American from South Carolina,
has decided to try his luck in the draft.
[O'Neal] I knew it was time to make the jump to the NBA.
I'm the piece that can change the bloodline of my family,
that can break the chains of things
that have been going on over and over and over and over again.
I'm that piece.
[somber music continues]
The Portland Trail Blazers select Jermaine O'Neal
from Eau Claire High School in South Carolina.
[crowd cheering]
[O'Neal] I got drafted at 17, picked to the Portland Trail Blazers.
[cheering]
[O'Neal] You get an opportunity to play something
that many people just dream about doing at 17.
Right? Just started driving.
But I also remember the boos.
[crowd booing]
That was one of the things that really motivated me.
Because people were counting me out.
[commentator] And now Jermaine O'Neal…
[O'Neal] I remember the first time I played in an NBA game.
It's like living a dream.
There ain't nothing like walking into those NBA arenas.
Feeling that energy.
[crowd cheering]
-That hate if you're opposing team. -[boos]
Or that incredible love if you're home team.
-[crowd cheering] -[commentator] Jermaine O'Neal!
I became the youngest player at the time to play an NBA game.
Now I'm going from being the best player on the court in high school
to being the fourth-best person at my position on my own team.
You never think about not playing. You just don't think about that.
Because if you do, you're a loser.
But it was like, "Damn, how dare you just not even give me a chance?"
I remember sitting at the end of the bench and tears in my eyes.
I was like, "Something gotta change."
[static crackling]
Well, it was just a couple months ago when the Pacers lost to an O'Neal,
but this week, they gained one in Jermaine O'Neal.
When I got the call that I got traded from Portland to Indiana,
I was so excited. It was an opportunity to play with Reggie Miller.
[chanting] Reggie! Reggie! Reggie!
I'm a die-hard Reggie fan.
I'm here for Reggie. [laughs]
I come to the games because of Reggie. [chuckles]
[O'Neal] I know he's a true competitor. He's a legend.
I told them, "Look, put me right next to his locker.
I need to talk to him."
[commentator] Here's Reggie. Here's the shot!
Ah!
[cheering]
[Miller] I played 18 years for the Indiana Pacers.
Indiana breathes basketball.
They live it.
So, me being a basketball junkie,
I was in heaven.
And I was fortunate that Donnie Walsh,
the president/general manager, took a chance on me.
Reggie was the guy that really put the Indiana Pacers
on a trajectory they had not been on before.
He really wanted to win
and did more than anybody anywhere in attempting to get the championship.
Reggie Miller of the Indiana Pacers is here.
He is one of the great basketball players in the NBA.
-Great to have you. Thanks for coming. -Thank you. My pleasure.
Is there more pressure on you this season because of the success of last season?
[Miller] I think so. Um…
I-I wanna win the championship.
That is… That is my big goal. We came very close last year.
[Miller] We got to the finals in 2000, and we lost to the Lakers.
[commentator] Jackson looking to throw it in against Shaq.
Reggie turns and puts it up.
Off the rim, and the Lakers are the NBA champions.
[newsman] We can't help but wonder, how many more chances
for the magnificent Reggie Miller?
[Miller] That was my 14th year, and we had never won a championship.
Looking at all the contracts and the age, it was time for us to get younger,
and they made and pulled the plug in getting Jermaine.
[O'Neal] The first day when I got traded,
I was at Champps, downtown Indianapolis.
And I walked in, I heard, "That's the guy we traded Dale Davis for."
People were pissed.
They gutted the team.
I was 20 years old.
I've never been in a position to be a starter
every single night,
but I'm willing to sacrifice every single thing I got
for this opportunity.
100% certain that you guys won't be disappointed at all.
I think you'll be very, very happy the trade was made.
I can bring a lot to the table.
I think Jermaine was really dedicated
to trying to prove he was one of the best players in the league.
And he handled himself off the court with that kind of confidence.
You know, he was kinda what the NBA wanted.
I was kinda thinking, not right away, but down the road,
maybe he could replace Reggie.
[Miller] He's definitely showing signs he'd carry this franchise,
and what I mean by that is not the numbers he does,
but I think the leadership he brings to a lot of the younger guys in here.
You have to outwork people. Like, you just gotta be a savage.
[Walsh] Jermaine, to me, was a very unusual player for then.
He can do a lot of big man things,
but he can also take people off the dribble,
and he was very athletic.
[commentator] O'Neal with a gorgeous 360 spin on Vlade Divac. Wow!
-[crowd cheers] -[whistle blows]
[Miller] Jermaine was on the verge of becoming a superstar in our game.
And he was becoming the face of the Indiana Pacers.
[announcer] First-time NBA All-Star center Jermaine O'Neal.
[crowd cheering]
Then I'm like, "Okay, I like it."
I didn't care about minutes or points.
I wanted all these young guys to do the bulk of the work.
I wanted to win a championship for Indiana.
That's what it was all about for me.
[buzzer sounds]
[crowd cheering]
My main focus,
and it doesn't always take place in one year,
is get players that fit with each other.
[inaudible]
[Artest] When I got traded to Indiana, I was on the bus going to the Miami game.
They said, "Don't get off the bus."
Uh, "You're traded."
And I remember…
You know, I never listen. So, I got off the bus.
And they said, "Don't get on the court."
And I went on the court.
[chuckles]
And they said, "Get off the court."
I said, "No," and I practiced for an hour.
[newsman] In their first meeting with the Indianapolis media today,
the newest members of the Indiana Pacers
expressed relief over getting out of Chicago.
[Artest] It feels good to be here after a couple of years in Chicago losing,
and, uh, it just was hard, you know. I just wanna bring that winning effort.
I didn't have a lot of trust with people
just because of things that I was going through and stuff.
For me, it's enemies. Everybody's an enemy to me, all the time.
But once we step on the court, I trust that.
[Miller] I remember the very first practice after the trade.
That practice, which was three hours,
I remember Jermaine coming up to me and was like,
"I don't know if we've ever practiced this hard."
And I'm like, "You're right. I think this is gonna be good."
[O'Neal] Ron was probably the hardest worker
that I've ever seen in my life.
I think he was probably the most talented defensive player
that we saw in an entire decade.
Ron is different.
But different isn't bad.
Different is just sometimes unique.
And Ron was unique in his talents.
[crowd cheering]
[Walsh] I'd never seen anybody play as hard as he did.
He was a force out there.
-[whistle blows] -[crowd] Oh!
When I step onto the court, I'm just 100% in.
Bring it to this. Bring it to this. Bring it to this.
Test me right here, it don't matter who. You could be the biggest gangster.
This is where we go. I'll die here.
[inaudible]
[Miller] Every team needs a Ron Artest.
You need a guy that everyone's a little bit afraid of.
[commentator] Hammered out of bounds by Artest.
Now having words with Heat assistant coach Keith Askins.
[whistle blows]
Wrong guy to pick with is Artest.
You know, that's, uh, that's who he is.
Hell of a player, but he's gotta get that under control.
He would say to me,
"Well, that's not fair. They shouldn't be able to do that."
I realized he's got an exaggerated idea of justice.
I just didn't like people. I always had a chip.
At the time, we had the best interior defender in Jermaine,
and we had the best perimeter defender in Ron.
[propulsive music playing]
[crowd cheering]
It was poetry in motion at times when they were on the court.
After I shut you down, if you do beat me, then Jermaine will shut you down.
We were also loose cannons mentally. Yeah, me and Jermaine.
Jermaine's a loose cannon, but he kept it really tight.
[whistle blowing]
[O'Neal] We had a lot of the same mentalities.
Dog, hard-nosed, we gonna go get you.
[crowd cheering]
[whistle blows]
And we just kinda started blazing through teams.
The Indiana Pacers, they are rolling.
The Indiana Pacers have the best record in the NBA.
[newsman] Indiana Pacers, best team in the league.
[newsman 2] Indiana Pacers, the team to beat in the East right now.
You guys don't understand how good we were.
[crowd cheering]
[O'Neal] We had the best record in the league the whole year.
Made it to the Eastern Conference Finals.
I look back at it now, and that was the series that ignited…
everything.
Detroit had incredible talent,
and we knew it was gonna be a tough scenario.
[Miller] We were the two best teams, defensively and offensively.
So I knew whoever won this was gonna win a championship.
[crowd cheers]
[whistle blows]
[crowd cheering]
That series, they pushed us to the limit.
[tense music plays]
[whistle blows]
In playoff basketball,
the margin of error is this small.
Everyone has the physical capabilities. It's…
[tense music continues]
[commentator 1] Whoa! Hamilton is fouled this time.
[crowd booing]
[commentator 2] Artest may be thrown out of the game,
but it's definitely gonna be a flagrant.
[commentator 1] That's just not a good move.
[commentator 2] This is a huge play for them.
At this time in the game, you can't lose your cool.
It's just too crucial.
You can't foul at the wrong time
-and give your opponent an advantage. -[buzzer sounds]
[commentator] And for the first time in 14 years,
the Pistons go to the NBA Finals!
They're the 2004 Eastern Conference champions!
We lost game six in Detroit.
[somber music plays]
It's like somebody sticking a knife into you.
The flagrant foul
that took place with Ron Artest, was that the difference in this game?
Well, it certainly had an impact.
You know, it was a tough call.
Yeah, I just put my forearm up, you know what I'm saying? And, um…
I think, uh…
But the ref saw it.
You know, he was, uh…
Losing to Detroit in the Conference, I remember.
Yeah. We should've went to the finals. We should've definitely won.
[somber music playing]
When we lose that series, who wins the championship?
[commentator] The Detroit Pistons have just shocked the Los Angeles Lakers.
[crowd cheering]
They were mentally tougher than we were.
I'm like, "You guys!"
[tense droning builds]
It was just frustrating.
-[droning fades] -[birds chirping]
[Artest] See you later. Love you.
Get out the garbage!
The next year, I knew something was wrong, like…
I knew something was definitely wrong and that I just needed to step back.
I said, "I want my retirement papers,"
and the Pacers said, "No, you gotta play." [chuckles]
"You're under contract six more years." [chuckles]
I felt like Ronnie was coming out with something like that every day.
One day he'd say,
"I can't come to practice tomorrow. I gotta do my music."
As a man, you gotta be able to do what you want.
So if I decide to wanna leave the game or take a month off, I'm a grown man.
It doesn't make me crazy, you know, to wanna do something I wanna do.
If you're asking for time off at the beginning of the year…
I mean, dude, we got six and a half months left,
and you're asking for a timeout now?
I still got my album coming out November 23rd,
and after the album comes out, I'm gonna, uh,
you know, make sure all my time is focused on winning the championship.
I had so much anxiety all the time.
[tense music playing]
You get that heart pumping.
It was something I couldn't control at that time. It was every day. Every day.
[tense music continues]
So, I was like, "I really do need to try to figure out what's wrong."
"Why are you not happy around basketball and your teammates?"
"Why are you not happy? Figure it out, figure it out."
I was already in therapy, but you don't get better overnight.
You know, we knew he had a psychiatrist that… that traveled everywhere we went.
We knew he had sessions that he had to have with her.
We knew that much,
but we were never, ever, you know, told that he had a certain issue,
medical issue.
I had depression and anxiety.
I would be depressed about certain things and have anxiety about future things.
Some people have control over their emotions. I don't.
If really I'm excited, happy, I've just dunked on somebody, game-winner,
that emotional level is not a good place for me.
Positively or negatively, you have no control of that.
Come on! The fuck you all doing?
I'm not gonna do this with you! Come on, my nigga!
Get your motherfucking security right!
[man] We got a fight back here.
[man 2] You gotta chill.
At times, Ron could be a little edgy.
And the dynamic between Jermaine and Ron was unsettling.
I think the final straw for us
was when he said he had a death in his family
and went to the Source Awards.
[announcer] Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the Tru Warier
Ron Artest and Petey Pablo!
You were saying you were going away for a funeral,
then three or four days later,
we turn the TV on and you're presenting an award at an award show,
and we ain't seen you in three or four days.
And the winner is…
I don't know what I'm doing up here. It's all good though.
I felt I was trying to escape.
I was trying to find any way to escape. Definitely.
I'm not gonna answer any more questions about Ron.
Ron doesn't wanna be here. Ron doesn't matter anymore.
It's about the Pacers, the players that suit up every single day.
I'm tired of answering questions about Ron.
I'm pleading with these guys.
"Get on the same page!"
I could not get them to understand the opportunity.
[Artest] I never listened to Reggie.
So any time he's, like, giving me leadership and mentorship,
I'm thinking, "Bust his ass in practice."
I know that we're putting together
young guys who could rub each other wrong,
but, you know, I really wanted to win,
and I was looking for one final piece of the team.
And that's why I made the trade for Stephen.
[Jackson] I remember getting that call from Donnie Walsh and Larry Bird.
I had to put 'em on speakerphone 'cause I'm on the block.
I'm on 3200 with all my homeboys.
[indistinct]
"Welcome to the Indiana Pacers," duh-duh-duh.
You know, it was a great moment.
When he said, "Welcome to…" all my homeboys get to running.
Just, "Oh!"
And I knew the opportunity was… was priceless.
[Miller] When Stephen came,
it was the best thing for us, because now we got Jermaine, Ron,
and now you're bringing in another tough, somewhat crazy dude in Stephen Jackson.
Everything has to come through Indiana. There's no secret.
They gotta come through us to get to where they wanna be.
And I-I-I think we're the team to beat.
We have all the pieces. We gotta put 'em together.
[reporter] A challenge you relish.
Yeah. I'm ready for a challenge. That's what I live for.
-I make love to pressure. -[laughs]
That's what I do.
Me and him was, like, we both kinda street.
So we're arguing about who's gonna guard the best guy,
like, almost come to blows.
Then I'm like, "All right, Steve, you got it."
So I'm like, "This guy is crazy!" [laughs]
We got a lot of similarities, but we're totally different.
I knew he was a little off. You know what I mean?
But he was a hell of a basketball player.
And that's all… I didn't judge nothing else but that.
I didn't care. I was weird. I did my own thing. I smoked weed all day.
Guys like me and Ron, we look at basketball as our life.
This is all we can do. God gave me this gift to help my family,
to get out of the situation I was in.
[O'Neal] Jack is a very aggressive person. We have a lot of similar traits.
He would turn that volume up very quickly and tell you about it.
He's down for the cause.
I'm a loyal guy. Like, one thing about it. If I'm with you, I'm with you, you know.
We shoot this, and we go to a bar afterwards, somebody say something,
I'll be the first one to stand up. That's how I am.
If I'm with you, I'm with you.
I was the missing piece.
That's basically what they were saying.
I was the missing piece to the championship team.
[Miller] There's only a handful of teams that can say,
"We have a shot to win the championship."
Out of my 18 years,
that season, we were loaded for bear.
This was our year.
[commentator] This is the Showdown of the East we've been waiting for.
A rivalry that's been brewing long before this season ever started.
Two teams, similar styles, only one survivor.
[uneasy music playing]
[Artest] Going into the Palace, we was already seven and two.
I knew that was the game I wanted more than any game.
But I didn't know what was gonna actually happen.
We were coming in there to make a statement.
"Yeah, y'all got the chip, but we're letting y'all know
y'all gonna be seeing us this year."
-Where we from? -[all] Detroit!
Detroit was one of the hardest places to play.
They don't make it easy for you.
[crowd cheering]
Whoo! Yeah!
Yeah!
Obviously, um, you know, we're facing a tough challenge
going into a… uh, going into the Palace.
They have a rabid fan base.
Very faithful and admiring fans.
Um, and very boisterous at times.
Yeah! Number one, baby! Number one!
Yeah! That's what I'm talking about!
The fans were a huge part of a lot of the success,
because even though you're on the court, you can hear those fans going crazy.
When we would come into the gym, we knew the Pistons were gonna win.
We just didn't know by how much.
[tense music playing]
Any time you put 20,000 people together for four or five hours,
and they're drinking,
the stage is set.
Somewhere, somebody's gonna have an issue.
There was a couple of guys that we were gonna remove their season tickets.
We kinda had enough of their, uh, shenanigans.
It was a Friday night. We didn't have to work Saturday,
so it was kinda like, you know, you kind of enjoyed it more.
Have a few drinks, hang out with friends. Kinda like treating myself.
Charlie's a fan. Uh, he was a season ticket holder.
And he had issues that night. And so, we were…
going to address it with him that we were taking away his season tickets that night.
We would normally probably work the Pistons games
two, three times a month.
On that day, we were assigned on the east side.
I think we had some rivalry with Indiana, I think, as well,
and the crowds were pretty charged up.
Everybody in the NBA wants one of these.
This is what they play for, a championship ring.
[Gray] I was there to broadcast the game for ESPN.
Indiana was a terrific team.
They were championship contenders
and may have, at that time, been the best team in the NBA.
But Detroit was a good team.
[tense music playing]
They were a really good team.
[tense music continues]
[Miller] I had broke my finger, so I was in a cast.
Stephen was moved to the shooting guard.
I didn't know the magnitude of the rivalry that I was walking into.
You gotta thing, they was wrestling with this team all last year
in the Eastern Conference Finals, about to go to blows.
It was absolutely a statement game for us.
This is our moment, and let's leave no doubt.
[Wallace] They felt that was their year,
and we felt like we had to defend our title.
I remember that night. The Palace was electrifying.
Man, it was…
It was almost like having an out-of-body experience.
You could feel the hair stand up on the back of your neck.
[tense music continues]
[Donaghy] Whenever you go into a nationally televised game,
there's a different roar in the arena.
There's more lights. There's more cameras.
You know, they're real careful who gets assigned games like that
because they want not to be embarrassed as a league.
Nobody liked refereeing the Pistons back then.
You knew you were in for a rough night.
When you have Ben Wallace, Stephen Jackson, Ron Artest,
I mean, that's just a recipe for disaster right there.
[crowd cheering]
Basketball fans from around the great state of Michigan,
and those of you here at the Palace from across the world,
stay on your feet.
-["The Final Countdown" playing] -Time to meet and greet the ballers
representing the D… troit Pistons!
[O'Neal] They had the most dynamic announcer. Right?
And it gasses you, where you saying, "Look, I'm at your ass today, Detroit."
[announcer] At 6'9", the center, wearing the big red three,
B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-Ben [trills lips] Wallace!
I remember they did the Ben Wallace introduction. That got me hyped.
That got me hyped. Like, "Let's bust they ass. Fuck that."
[crowd cheering]
At the time, I didn't know Ben Wallace lost his brother.
Having that energy, you know, it was…
[inhales]
I knew I couldn't put that energy nowhere else but into basketball.
It was like a powder keg.
[commentator 1] A fun matchup to watch during the regular season.
We can only hope they'll meet again in the playoffs.
Pistons so far perfect at home. Another packed house at the Palace.
Going into that game, I thought we could beat Detroit,
and I wanted to see if this type of team would work.
[commentator 1 continues indistinctly]
[tense music playing]
[commentator 2] O'Neal.
[commentator 1] Artest steps back… Oh, what a quarter for Ron Artest.
Four-tenths of a…
Even though at that time I was struggling, I was playing great.
The game was a beatdown. We dominated from beginning to end.
-Ron dominated. Nobody couldn't stop him. -[whistle blows]
Two, three, four guards couldn't guard Ron at the time.
He was too agile. He was definitely the best player on the court.
We were up double digits, and my young boys were jawing.
They were clicking.
Ron and Jermaine.
It's good Ron, and it's good Jermaine.
It was fantastic.
[tense music continues]
This is our moment. It's our coming-out party.
We came in with a different type of swag.
Stephen's like… he's so clutch.
I'm like, "Wow, this guy makes every big shot."
"Wow."
[commentator speaking indistinctly]
We knew right away we was the best team.
We were kicking their ass.
They put a championship team together. It was obvious.
[tense music continues]
'Cause we were beating them down,
the normal ticket holders were gone.
They had left.
So it was the people that were trickling their way down
that were probably already liquored up, coming on down to fill those seats.
Oh, man, very disrespectful, like, the way they did it.
The game was almost over. They had starters out there playing.
They were up by 15, 20 points.
[commentator] Oh! Wallace with a terrific block!
That's not a foul.
At the end of the game, we're up by 15. In my mind, the game's over.
Jamaal Tinsley tells Ron,
"You can get your foul now." Ron looked at him like, "Huh?"
"You can get your foul now."
You got your foul. You can go now, right? All right?
Why are you even telling him that?
Ron doesn't need a battery in his back to do something crazy.
[commentator] Artest with 24, O'Neal at 20,
Croshere 15, Tinsley 13.
[Jackson] As we're running back, I guard Ben.
When they throw him the ball, I'm not gonna try to play defense on him.
I'm not even gonna try to foul him.
-[Artest] He was going for a layup. -[commentator] Oh!
I didn't want him to get the layup, so I pushed him.
It was too hard of a foul at that point in time during the game.
-[whistle blowing] -[crowd cheers]
[commentator] Oh, Wallace! Right at Artest!
This has potential to be serious if they don't get between them.
Wallace upset. Players trying to hold each other off.
Stephen Jackson, and we see Wallace trying to be peacemaker.
Now Jackson yelling…
[Miller] The dust-up I have no problem with.
That happens all the time. The pushing, the shoving…
You know, that's all fake.
Most of the time, nobody in the NBA wanna fight.
It has to be real disrespectful shit for somebody to throw punches.
[commentator] …in here to get him away.
[indistinct yelling]
Where it all turned
is when Ron went and laid on the scorer's table.
[indistinct yelling]
[tense music playing]
Went over and laid down, which is not normal.
It's not normal to lay down on the scorer's table.
That's crazy, too, you know?
That's… That's… That's almost worse than the foul.
[indistinct yelling and commotion]
[Artest] I was already in therapy. So I was practicing in real time.
One thing was take five, right?
So if something happens, you're like, "One, two, three…"
Before you do anything, just count, 'cause then you get more time to think.
[indistinct yelling]
[Artest] My team was all around me.
It was funny 'cause I felt like I was a big dog, like…
I did feel like my team got…
I know my team,
so I know, like, Jermaine's not gonna just let Ben come over and touch me.
I know that for a fact. Like, I got Steve Jackson.
I'm like, "All right, Cool. I don't need to do nothing. I'm fine."
[indistinct yelling]
[commentator] Wallace is still charged up.
Now, Wallace, I would assume, has been ejected.
Ben wore, like, 10,000 armbands and headbands and wrist bands,
and he started throwing things.
[crowd clamoring]
[Donaghy] Saw him throwing the headband and the wristbands.
He definitely was losing his temper.
[inaudible]
The fans don't know the majority of us are actually friends,
so they think that this is a real street brawl scenario.
So however you react, they're gonna react.
If you do this, what do you think they gonna do?
The crowd feeds off the players.
Out of the corner of my eye,
I see it coming.
Super slo-mo. Like, it just…
It just… Everybody was supposed to see it. That's how slow it went.
[disturbing droning]
[Miller] Bam!
[commentator] Now Artest has jumped over the scorer's table
and is trying to get down to the bench!
Artest is in the stands!
Oh, this is awful. Fans are getting involved.
Once I saw him go, I went.
He needed aid.
As I get to him, another beer is thrown in his face. And that's the guy I…
[commentator] Stephen Jackson's in the fans.
The security trying to somehow restore order.
Fans and players are going at it! The players trying to help each other out!
Rasheed Wallace going into the stands!
[crowd clamoring]
[commentator] This is a disgrace.
[disturbing droning continues]
All the players, they're jumping in there to try and get the other players out
because the fans have become involved.
[all yelling]
[commentator] Oh, what a sad scene here at the Palace.
[Artest] Walking down the stands, I'm thinking, "It's good."
I didn't think anything else was gonna happen at all.
I thought it was gonna be over.
[O'Neal] I just stopped and paused, and I just started looking.
"Where is the security at?"
There was no police. I didn't see a policeman in the building.
I didn't see any security. There was nobody there to stop this.
Everybody was everywhere. I mean, it was just like a melee.
And then, they were pushing us towards the exit.
Somehow, I got on the court.
I remember being shocked, like I'd seen an alien, like…
"This guy, uh, coming to the court to fight?"
'Cause at that point, I'm fed up.
I'm trying not to fight, but these guys are giving me a reason…
This is my comfort zone.
You wouldn't in your right mind walk down on the court and think it's a good idea
to take on Ron Artest after he's been in the stands.
[crowd yelling]
[commentator] Oh, what a sad scene here at the Palace.
[crowd yelling]
[commentator] Now another fight's breaking out
in front of the Pistons bench.
It's a fan.
This is very, very dangerous.
Fans are throwing…
[crowd yelling]
[tense music playing]
I didn't see him coming at all. Sucker punched me.
You know, quite a…
bitch move, tell you the truth.
I just all-out sprint over there to try to help him.
[crowd yelling]
[Miller] He slipped. Thank God.
It was the best miss of Jermaine's career.
[tense music continues]
'Cause if Jemaine would've connected on that punch…
[crowd yelling]
…that fan would have been dead.
[commentator] …now onto the court.
[crowd yelling]
Ron Artest has a look in his eye that's very scary right now.
The scariest moment was once I realized how out of control this got
and how much further it's gonna go.
[distant siren wails]
At the time, we had three officers on the court.
Not the best odds against 20,000 people.
It was out of control.
That's why the decision was we need to get the players off the court.
If we get them off the court, the fans will calm down.
[tense music continues]
[Miller] An officer runs up from behind me,
and he has his mace thing out,
and he's getting ready to mace Ron.
[all yelling]
I had no intention of spraying Ron Artest. He was already down on the floor.
He had… He looked wore out.
At some point, I ran across Reggie Miller in a suit.
And I… At the time, I didn't know he was Reggie Miller or a player
'cause he was in a suit. I'm asking him what is he doing.
How you not know Reggie Miller's on the Indiana Pacers?
[tense music continues]
[inaudible]
[Miller] I grabbed the officer. Like, "What are you doing?"
I was like, "Go get all these people off the court. Don't be macing him."
[yelling indistinctly]
That's when I really got pissed off.
Like, y'all are not trying to help us. It's really 15 against 30,000.
[commentator] They're trying to get the Pacers to go back to the locker room.
[crowd yelling]
[Miller] We all grab Ron, and we start to run.
[O'Neal] You see everybody merge to one area.
And they throwing everything they can get their hands on.
[crowd yelling]
[tense music continues]
[music intensifies]
[commentator] Now these ridiculous fans trying to go at the players and throwing…
[crowd yelling]
[commentator] Somebody could really get hurt.
[angry yelling]
[commentator] This is a bad showing from the Pistons fans.
Just firing bottles from the stairs.
All right, I'm good.
-I can walk! I can walk! -Okay!
We ride together, fam!
[indistinct yelling]
I remember saying to the camera, "We ride together."
We gonna always ride together. That was my attitude.
I was happy that I helped my brother down.
I was happy I was able to come to my brother's aid.
You can see that in my face in the locker room.
I was happy with what we did. I was there for my brother. Yes!
-[reporter] Tell me your name, sir. -Charlie Haddad.
He hit me in the face. I'm still hurt. I need X-rays on my whole face.
I don't even know what's going on.
You gotta stop, you gotta stop.
[man] Take it outside. You can't be in here.
After I get hit, we left and went through a different room,
like they were protecting me.
They started bringing people into my office.
A couple of them were like, "This would be funny
if one of us, you know, hurt ourselves and we can sue."
[sirens wailing]
[tense music continues]
I remember looking. I see people rocking chairs, trying to get the chairs loose.
[crowd yelling indistinctly]
The arena closed in on us very quick.
The crowd was getting a little bit, um, out of control.
Somebody easily could grab your weapon.
[crowd yelling]
[O'Neal] Then, all of a sudden, I saw the chair up in the air.
[crowd yelling]
People were trying to hurt me and others.
It was just a horrible, horrible scene.
[crowd yelling]
[tense music continues]
[booing]
[indistinct yelling]
[somber music playing]
[indistinct yelling]
[Miller] We get to the locker room, and slowly but surely,
everyone was starting to filter in with their own stories.
The whole time, I'm like, "Jermaine is gonna kick my butt."
The whole time.
I didn't wanna see him.
I knew he was gonna be pissed. It's all about winning for Jermaine.
Ron, uh, leans over to me and asks me, "Are we gonna get in trouble?"
Said, "What you mean?"
I just lost it.
He charged Ron, and we end up breaking it up.
[indistinct yelling]
I just needed confirmation that it was kinda, like, over.
Yeah.
Then the police comes in and trying to grab me to take me to jail.
And I'm still… Again, I'm on survival mode.
I'm like, "Look, I'm not going with you."
"I am getting on this bus and getting on that plane,
and I'm going home."
"Reach out to my lawyers."
[static crackles]
The NBA and some of its fans achieved a new level of outrageousness last night.
A fight broke out between the Pacer team and the fans in the stands.
…disgraceful brawl at the Pacers-Pistons game in Detroit
may be the ugliest act of pure hooliganism in US sports history.
Everybody talked about it. Every show talked about it.
ESPN played it every five minutes.
It wasn't a brawl in Detroit Friday night. It was a full-scale riot
and one of the ugliest incidents of player-fan violence
we've ever seen in this country.
The players, paid gazillions of dollars here,
these are guys who have never had to follow the rules.
They violated the number-one rule for any professional athlete,
and that is no matter what is said, no matter what is thrown at you,
you don't go into the stands.
The narrative had changed.
It was all about us, the players.
Ron, Steve, JO, it's their fault. They were being thugs, acting out of line.
Like, all of a sudden, my character
is in question.
It wasn't just the amount of people that were saying it.
It was the stature of the people who were saying it.
And it's tough to argue the certain thug mentality hasn't crept into basketball.
The thug image is there until somebody excises it from the league.
"These are thugs." Literally, that's the word that he used.
Everybody else signing off. "Yeah, it's rap music…"
Well, they're not saying that
when hockey is beating the hell out of each other for decades.
The NBA says it's fighting a bad boy image.
The tattoos, the fights, the drug busts.
Are the media helping the NBA market this as a kind of in-your-face, hip-hop sport?
The hip-hop generation of players
seeming to some more estranged from the fans
than the Magics and the Michaels that preceded them.
The dress code was immediate.
It's the old famous saying. "Should have never gave them niggas no money."
There is real resentment against some of today's major players.
Many of the fans consider them to be overpaid,
underperforming, overly coddled, and immature.
Players have not learned how to… how to act, in many cases,
within a civilized, normal society.
Television was putting pressure on our league to say, "Hey, look,
these guys are… are hoodlums, these guys are out of control,
these guys are this and that."
The visual of NBA players going into the stands and fighting
goes around the world. You have to stop that immediately.
The NBA has been under heat for a number of years
and clearly has been hurt
by this impression a lot of its players give
that they are, uh, gangster wannabes
or, in some few cases, actual felons.
Pressure on the NBA to clean up its ranks,
send a message that these guys are not a bunch of thugs.
It's going to be real interesting to see what the league does.
This is the type of publicity they can't afford.
Don't you think it's important the NBA has to send a message…
-A message will be sent. -…send the strongest…
-…possible message… -…to make sure it doesn't happen again.
[indistinct chattering]
Today, I announce the, uh, following suspensions,
uh, resulting from the actions
at the Indiana Pacers and Detroit Pistons game
on November 19th.
[inhales deeply]
Uh, Indiana's Ron Artest has been suspended for the remainder of the season.
[somber music playing]
Indiana's Stephen Jackson has been suspended for 30 games.
Indiana's Jermaine O'Neal has been suspended for 25 games.
The NBA has handed out unprecedented punishments
to the players involved in Friday night's basketball game.
John, this may be unprecedented punishment.
The NBA just announcing
that Ron Artest has been suspended
for the rest of the season.
David Stern was basically telling everyone,
players and fans alike,
"This will not be tolerated. An incident like this will not be tolerated again."
Not one time have I thought that I shouldn't be punished.
But to 25 games? I ain't okay with that, because everything I did,
I had to do in protection.
I wish I could have been interviewed right after,
'cause then people could have been like, "He's right," "He's wrong."
There could have been way more opinions, but the opinion was only on the film
and the suspension, and we had to be quiet.
[O'Neal] I never had a conversation with David Stern about it.
The narrative was based on an edited…
conclusion on ESPN.
[somber music continues]
Not even a fair trial of what it was.
Commissioner Stern has wide power in this situation, you know.
Usually, in light of situations where something like that occurs,
you have a situation where an independent arbitrator comes in
and negotiates between the two sides
to reach a… reach an agreement on some kind of punishment.
But since this was an on-court issue,
the third arbitrator is… There is no third arbitrator.
It is Commissioner David Stern. It comes to his doorstep.
He's the final word.
-It'll be interesting to see… -Such a deal. I like that deal.
You get to call the shots.
-You get to review the shots. -Exactly.
[reporter] The decision to suspend Artest for the entire season, was that unanimous?
-It was. -[reporter] Why?
It was unanimous.
One-nothing.
[interviewer] It seemed at first, this was a complex situation,
but then it suddenly became very black-and-white.
What do you think changed?
-You know why it changed, right? -[interviewer] Why did it change?
-Do you know why it changed? -[interviewer] No.
-You don't know why? -[interviewer] I don't.
Who got the suspensions?
-[interviewer] Players. -Who took over this process?
-[interviewer] Stern. -There you go.
The NBA is very cognizant of the fact that you don't wanna alienate any fans
because they're the ones that pay your bills.
They want to blame us to save the league.
They didn't wanna put it on the fans.
You're sitting, watching people throw darts.
[whooshing sounds]
And you can't say nothing.
I think the narrative is slightly different
if they see all the footage.
I don't mind taking blame, but I also would like the story out there.
Like, what happened? Go frame by frame.
-[rewinding] -[tense music playing]
I'd like to introduce David Gorcyca, the Oakland County prosecutor.
[Gorcyca] The NBA was worried about their perception.
Their image was… was tarnished,
and the severity of the sanctions and suspensions was…
was pretty harsh.
I think they wanted me to send a message to these millionaire-type bullies
that, "Hey, you can't be doing that."
But my job was to look at the facts
and decide what the appropriate charges are.
Everyone involved in this altercation will be held accountable,
regardless of their status as a player or a fan.
The magnitude of this case was like no other.
It got bothersome from a media perspective.
They're just constantly on me daily.
They wanted to pontificate about what I should or shouldn't do.
It was a lot of work, uh, that went into this.
Gonna be a very long investigation,
probably more complicated than a murder because we have so many witnesses.
There was over a thousand pages of police reports.
Unlike most crimes, we had so much footage from different angles.
[intricate music playing]
The Palace had a VHS tape for each and every camera that was inside the arena
and then all of the cameras that are on the concourse
as people were leaving.
We wanted to identify every single person--
player, fan, employee of the Palace.
Anybody that did anything wrong.
Eventually, we got to the point
where we isolated images of the people that we were looking for
and we started broadcasting them out.
[newswoman] Breaking developments in the Palace brawl.
Local Four has obtained exclusive video
of the man accused of throwing a chair into the crowd
during Friday night's frantic melee.
The man who threw the chair
and struck the two individuals was a clear-cut case of felonious assault.
When you look at some of the fans, some of them relished it and got into it.
Charlie Haddad and AJ Shackleford,
they came down several rows and walked on the court,
one of them coming on the court
face-to-face with Ron with a clenched fist.
So Ron had every right to defend himself at that point.
[Haddad] It was just crazy. Made it look like it was my fault.
They definitely did a very, very loyal fan wrong.
[Gorcyca] One of the main people we wanted to locate was the guy that threw the cup.
The main focus has to turn to the person who started the riot.
The guy who threw a beer can.
[Gorcyca] The biggest issue was we could not identify the cup thrower.
And I was watching, and I went, "Play that back."
It took me ten, twelve takes of the video to finally put it together.
And it dawned on me where I recognized him from.
He used to date, uh, a neighbor.
So I knew who it was. So I ended up identifying the cup thrower myself.
-[reporter] Can we talk to you? -Can you leave our property, please?
-[reporter] Asking if I can talk to you. -[man] No, man.
[newsman] The suspected cup-throwing fan,
who the prosecution identified as John Green,
tried to chase reporters away
from his suburban Detroit home on Monday with his dog.
I was in my office and our dispatcher called back to me and said,
"I have a guy on the phone saying he's John Green,
the guy that threw the cup."
[Green] It was really wrong.
Those guys shouldn't come up like that into the stands.
-Especially if you have the wrong guy. -[Martin] Right.
-[Green] That's me. -[Martin] That's you?
[Green] Yup. There, that's me.
-[Martin] Do you still have this jersey? -[Green] I have it.
-[Martin] Can I see it? -[Green] Why?
-[Martin] I gotta verify that-- -[Green] I have it. Am I in trouble?
[Martin] No, no one's charged at this point.
[Green] Before-- Let me call my attorney real quick.
The man who started it all.
Boy, he became public enemy number one.
Now, for the first time, he speaks out.
[Green] It's apparent who threw the cup.
[interviewer] You were wearing… I saw that Ben Wa--
Either that or you have an exact twin who was standing up there.
I've been told that a few times.
[interviewer] Yeah. People have pointed at you as the person who threw that cup.
-[Green] Right. -[interviewer] When somebody says that,
"Were you the guy that threw the cup?" how do you answer that?
[Green] Uh, at this point, you know, I… No hable.
You know, I mean, the video pretty much speaks for itself.
[interviewer] Did you feel bad at all when Ron Artest is flying up there
and goes right by you and attacks the guy next to you?
[sighs] I felt relief.
No. [laughs] Jeez!
[laughs]
[interviewer] Do you have any, you know, compassion within yourself
or some pity that he went after that guy, and you were the guy who…
The only thing I regret is not putting my foot out sooner.
-[interviewer] And tripping him over? -Yeah.
I think John Green precipitated this whole melee.
[reporter] It seems that you're holding fans…
You're saying fans are more culpable here than the players. Is that correct?
I would say one fan is more culpable, and that being Mr. Green.
He doesn't throw that cup, Artest doesn't go in the stands,
the players don't go in the stands,
fans don't react to the players in the stands,
and probably the whole melee, uh, dies on the court.
All of 'em, except for, I think, John Green,
it was fines, costs, probation, community service
that ultimately was the sentence of each one of 'em.
John Green was charged with one count of assault and battery
for throwing the beer,
as well as another count of assault and battery
for coldcocking Ron Artest.
[indistinct courtroom chatter]
[O'Neal] It's important for people to understand after the criminal part,
I went through a process to appeal my suspension.
And once it finally got to federal court,
a federal judge, who then saw every camera angle,
said I had the right to do what I did.
I'mma be honest with you. I didn't go up there with no story.
I didn't give a fuck.
I was put in a situation where I either help my brother or not help him.
I chose to help him.
I apologized for going in the stands. I apologized for embarrassing the league.
That's why I left it. I wasn't going in there kissing no ass.
They didn't decrease mine. They decreased JO's.
And, uh, Ron had his full-year suspension as well.
It was… [sighs]
a significant amount of time for what it was.
They were misdemeanor assault and batteries.
Normally, you'd spend less than an hour on that case, start to finish.
What the criminal justice system did to them
paled in comparison to what the NBA did to 'em.
That cup of beer changed everything.
Cost all of us…
a lot of money and time.
You know, it cost a lot of people a lot of things.
[crowd cheering]
[commentator] Reggie Miller with universal respect.
And the way he played this year, there was talk about would he reconsider.
And Reggie's given no indication that this is anything but final.
[crowd chanting] Reggie! Reggie! Reggie! Reggie!
Reggie! Reggie! Reggie!
[Miller] Once all this happened,
that's when I was like, "It's time for me to hang it up."
[crowd cheering]
[Jackson] If the brawl hadn't happened, we would have been champions. No question.
That's the most fucked-up thing about it.
That's the only thing I regret about the whole situation,
is not being able to do what we said we was gonna do for Reggie.
[somber music playing]
[Miller] It was bittersweet because so many emotions run through your mind.
It was, like, fast forward 18 years.
That's your last NBA game ever.
[voice breaking] It's special, man. It's pure and special.
It is.
[crowd cheering]
[voice breaking] For 18 years,
I've truly been blessed…
[crowd cheering]
…to be a Pacer and a Hoosier.
[crowd cheering]
Yeah, it's painful. Uh…
For me, it's painful.
He did about everything you could do.
[somber music continues]
[crowd cheering]
I apologize for that,
because there's no reason why, uh, Reggie,
uh, should be sitting home without a ring.
[crowd yelling angrily]
[yelling continues]
[sound cuts off]
[Artest] The Indiana jersey I had on
was projected on television at my worst moment.
So, wearing it, I wanna hide.
[crowd yelling]
I didn't wanna ever play in an Indiana jersey. Too much pressure.
I asked to be traded, 'cause like I said, I don't confront things head-on.
But I think it'd be best if I move on, and then, you know, they can move on.
You know, everybody can move on with their careers.
[Jackson] That was a slap in my face.
After all we'd been through the last year, now you wanna leave us?
That had a lasting effect with me and Ron.
You gotta be accountable for the people that you pulled in.
And to me, that was the most coward scenario
I've ever fucking seen in my life.
Sometimes you're a coward and you gotta admit it. Boom. Simple.
You know, and, yeah, I didn't… I should've…
What you do in a moment like that is call your teammate,
even if it's really uncomfortable.
So, yeah, I wish that would have happened.
[somber music playing]
It took a long time to figure out what's wrong.
At 23 years old, if I had more balance, I probably would have been really great.
Ron Artest, by the way, uh…
Ron Artest of the Los Angeles Lakers had some big news today.
Ron actually filed papers to have his name legally changed to Metta World Peace.
-Ridiculous. It reminds me of Prince… -So dumb.
…becoming the Artist Formerly Known as Prince.
How long did that symbol last?
After the brawl, I told my therapist, "All I wanna do is have balance."
"That's it. I don't care about nothing else."
I tried not to have that much emotional attachment to the game.
That's Buddhism, right?
You know, and Metta's a Buddhist name.
You wanna keep attaching yourself to as many positive things as possible.
When you look at my career,
not being a good teammate, like, Metta's the opposite.
Be a good friend, be love, and be kindness.
I wanna communicate, I wanna be a better person. You know?
And that's pretty much what Metta means.
I had a real problem with Ron for years,
and it grew a dislike in my system.
I was probably even more angry once he won the championship.
[commentator] Ron Artest has made the most of his second chance.
And he's come all the way from that Palace brawl
to NBA championship with the Los Angeles Lakers.
Ron, you're the only member of this Laker team
to get that first championship.
You, my friend, are a champion. How does it feel?
I was supposed to get one with Jermaine and Donnie and Larry
and Jamaal Tinsley and Jeff Foster over there in Indiana,
and I bailed out on them. I feel like a coward.
I don't even like being in their presence. I feel like a coward in their presence,
you know, 'cause I bailed out on them as a teammate.
And then I get to get a championship, you know, so…
Let's talk about this game. You looked in the first half…
I'm over the situation. I lost a lot of money. Whatever.
I still feel like Jermaine's being labeled by that.
Jermaine O'Neal. [small laugh]
He was on the verge of becoming one of the greatest players ever. You know?
[Walsh] When I look at Jermaine today,
I think he probably suffered more than all the players.
Because Ronnie Artest ended up with the Lakers and won a championship.
Even Jack, who had played on a championship team, San Antonio.
So Jermaine's career kinda got short-circuited.
The responsibility of carrying that team and being the leader was on him
when all that happened, and it wasn't his fault.
But he got blamed for it.
[somber music playing]
I've never really tried to use the word "regret,"
um,
but…
it's a part of me
that, uh,
has always bothered me.
[somber music continues]
Sky 4 was over the Palace of Auburn Hills earlier today,
where crews were beginning to demolish the place.
[newswoman] The Palace was home to the Detroit Pistons
and saw three NBA championships
before it closed for good after the 2017 season.
[O'Neal] This thing was drawn out for years.
[echoing commentator chatter]
[O'Neal] I didn't wanna talk to anybody. I wanted to move on with my life.
I've never been able to get away from it though.
[uneasy music plays]
People thought that ticket guaranteed them to do whatever they wanted to do.
They can act and treat people any way they wanted.
[siren wails]
[crowd yelling]
I'm not saying much of it was correct,
but they had a personal investment in-in those ballplayers.
[O'Neal] Pops up every single year.
Kids that wasn't even born asking me about that.
[crowd yelling]
[Smith] Fans have such an emotional investment in it.
There is a darkness there.
[commentator] If you're a professional athlete, you may not go into the stands.
Boy, what a waste of a lot of time and resources
when crimes and murders were taking place.
Nobody cared about who won the criminal cases,
who won the appeal case.
I wasn't able to speak for years.
This is the last fucking time you can ask me about this shit.
I don't wanna talk about that piece of shit motherfucker who threw that beer.
Okay? I don't wanna talk about losing all that money no more.
[commentator] This is a disgrace.
If there's any fault, it's on me. I thought it would work.
I wasn't right.
[commentator] Fans and players are going at it. The players…
Some things just never leave.
They never leave.
Malice in the Palace is… is one of those events.
There's a bit of me that probably to this very day
is still in the Palace until they knock it down.
[somber music playing]
[explosion blasting]
[loud droning]
[somber droning plays]
[music fades]