By Brandon Boyer, Staff Writer

On Nov. 19, 2004, the Indiana Pacers and the Detroit Pistons were winding down an early regular season match-up at Detroit’s home, The Palace of Auburn Hills. What happened in the final minute of the game led to the downfall of the Indiana Pacers over the next decade and saw the career trajectories of some of the NBA’s brightest stars change overnight.

To put the game into context, the Pacers and Pistons were two of the best teams in the NBA at the time, with Detroit knocking out Indiana in the Eastern Conference Finals the year before. The 2004-05 Pacers had all the players needed to make a serious run to the Finals that year, winning six of their first eight games to understate that fact.

With 45.9 seconds left in the game, the Pacers were up 97-82 over the Pistons. Ron Artest had led the Pacers from the get go with 24 points on the night, 17 of which came in the first quarter. Jermaine O’Neal had another solid game, recording a double-double with 20 points and 13 rebounds. On the Pistons side, Rip Hamilton had 20 points with Rasheed and Ben Wallace both contributing with double-doubles.

Ben Wallace and Ron Artest had come to blows earlier in the game, with Artest fouling Wallace hard from behind on an attempted layup. Wallace came back at Artest with a shove in the face and led to the clearing of both team’s benches.

A fan threw a cup of Diet Coke at Artest while he was lying on the media table, which led to Artest leaping into the stands and going after who he thought, was responsible. Radio broadcaster, Mark Boyle, who was next to Artest at the time, attempted to hold the rising star back, only to suffer five fractured vertebrae and a gouge to his head.

Numerous fans spilled onto the court and Indiana players ran into the stands to attempt to retrieve Artest and forward Stephen Jackson, who had run into the stands and punched a fan. Players and officials from both sides quickly attempted to find order in the situation.

Another fight broke out between Artest, Jermaine O’Neal and fans as order was attempting to be restored, which led to the intervention of Reggie Miller and William Wesley to pull Artest away from the fans.

As the remaining moments on the game clock were abandoned, what followed after the game took nearly a decade for the Pacers to rebound from. The Pistons are still a shadow of their former championship-winning glory, even ten years later.

Artest was suspended for the rest of the season, which was 86 games for the Pacers (73 regular season, 13 playoff), much of which without pay. Stephen Jackson was suspended 30 games. All in all, the NBA suspended nine players for a total of 146 games, which led to around $11 million lost in players’ salaries as a result.

 

The Aftermath

Ron Artest, or Metta World Peace as he would later rename himself, is now playing in China at the age of 35. His career forever fashioned in the aftermath of what occurred that November night. In the following season, Artest requested a trade only 16 games into the 2005-06 season. Willingly to trade the controversial forward, the Pacrers shipped Artest off to the Sacramento Kings. From there, Artest would bounce around between the Rockets, Lakers, and Knicks, ultimately winning a title with the Lakers in 2010 and sealing the last championship for coach Phil Jackson. Now he plays in China for the Sichuan Blue Whales and wears stuffed panda bears on his shoes. He’s even working on changing his legal name to The Pandas Friend in China.

Stephen Jackson hung around the Pacers for another full season before being traded to the Golden State Warriors in 2007. His last full season in Indiana was filled with suspensions and an incident outside of an Indianapolis strip club. From the Warriors, he went on to play for Charlotte, Milwaukee, San Antonio and the Los Angeles Clippers. Now a free agent but not retired, Jackson now just shows up every now and then on ESPN talk shows, telling of his role in the fight that fateful night.

Jermaine O’Neal stuck around the Pacers for a while, still putting up fantastic numbers, but had a career hampered by injuries throughout his late-20s. He too took on the journeyman role after three more seasons in Indiana, with stops in Miami, Toronto, Boston, Phoenix and Golden State, where he backed up Andrew Bogut.

Anthony Johnson, Reggie Miller, and David Harrison all faced suspensions. For the rest of their careers, Miller went on to be inducted into the NBA Hall of Fame. Johnson and Harrison both faced the life of a journeyman soon after their suspensions ended, whereas Miller graces television sets on TNT as an announcer for NBA games.

The Pacers now face another potentially franchise crumbling issue, with young players, Paul George, George Hill, and Roy Hibbert all facing injury issues, Indiana must fend for themselves with benchwarmers and free agents. They have all the pieces together still, thankfully, but it’s more of a fitness and recovery issue than disciplinary issues.

While it’s too soon to say how this season will pan out, Pacers fans will hope that it’s nothing compared to that fateful November night that took a decade to repair; that night of malice at the Palace.