The Malice in the Palace

Tarlin and Mike run it back to November of 2004 where the infamous Malice in the Palace took place in Auburn Hills, Michigan. We draw parallels between a recent spate of incidents between players and fans and what quickly escalated into the worst fracas in NBA history during a game between the Detroit Pistons and Indiana Pacers. The Malice involved players fighting fans in the stands and on the court and was much more severe than what we’ve seen in the 2021 NBA Playoffs so far, but we look for lessons to be learned for today here.

If you want to refresh your memory, here’s the video of the melee. And here’s a great interview of Reggie Miller by Dan Patrick that gets at what it was like to be amid the chaos back in the day.

Ron Artest, Ben Wallace, Stephen Jackson and others brought a toughness that we haven’t seen lately in the NBA, but the roiling emotions and poor boundaries on the part of fans can lead to out-of-control scenes like what we saw in Detroit in 2004. We spend time finding narratives and connections to the Malice in the Palace that resonates in the disruptive times we’re living in today.

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