And Wallace is fouled.
And Wallace is... Oh! Wallace!
Right on Artest!
This has potentially serious...
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.
I couldn't believe what was going on.
It was an iconic brawl.
Unprofessional.
Absolutely unprofessional.
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 sh*t 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 th*gs.
If you actually knew what happened,
you actually knew the effects
that it had on everybody...
...you wouldn't even be asking questions.
I want the story out there.
What happened? Go frame by frame.
Show people all the footage.
Then when it's told, you make
your own conclusion on what it is.
♪ 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 ♪
All right, all right, all right, I'm good.
I can walk!
- Okay, fine.
- I can walk!
Okay, all right.
We ride together, fam!
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."
Thanks, I appreciate it.
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.
When I got home,
I'm up all night looking at this.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The National Basketball Association draft
of new talent is coming up on Wednesday.
This year's crop is younger than ever.
One high school senior,
Jermaine O'Neal,
thinks he's ready to play in the NBA.
Jermaine O'Neal!
O'Neal,
an All-American from South Carolina,
has decided to try his luck in the draft.
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.
The Portland Trail Blazers
select Jermaine O'Neal
from Eau Claire High School
in South Carolina.
I got drafted at 17,
picked to the Portland Trail Blazers.
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.
That was one of the things
that really motivated me.
Because people were counting me out.
And now Jermaine 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.
That hate if you're opposing team.
Or that incredible love
if you're home team.
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."
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.
Reggie! Reggie! Reggie!
I'm a die-hard Reggie fan.
I'm here for Reggie.
I come to the games
because of Reggie.
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."
Here's Reggie. Here's the shot!
Ah!
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?
I think so. Um...
I-I wanna win the championship.
That is... That is my big goal.
We came very close last year.
We got to the finals in 2000,
and we lost to the Lakers.
Jackson looking
to throw it in against Shaq.
Reggie turns and puts it up.
Off the rim,
and the Lakers are the NBA champions.
We can't help but wonder,
how many more chances
for the magnificent Reggie 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.
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.
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.
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.
O'Neal with a gorgeous
360 spin on Vlade Divac. Wow!
Jermaine was on the verge
of becoming a superstar in our game.
And he was becoming
the face of the Indiana Pacers.
First-time NBA All-Star center
Jermaine O'Neal.
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.
My main focus,
and it doesn't always take place
in one year,
is get players that fit with each other.
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.
And they said, "Get off the court."
I said, "No,"
and I practiced for an hour.
In their first meeting
with the Indianapolis media today,
the newest members of the Indiana Pacers
expressed relief
over getting out of Chicago.
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.
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."
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.
I'd never seen anybody
play as hard as he did.
He was a force out there.
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.
Every team needs a Ron Artest.
You need a guy
that everyone's a little bit afraid of.
Hammered out of bounds by Artest.
Now having words
with Heat assistant coach Keith Askins.
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.
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.
We had a lot of the same mentalities.
Dog, hard-nosed, we gonna go get you.
And we just kinda started
blazing through teams.
The Indiana Pacers, they are rolling.
The Indiana Pacers
have the best record in the NBA.
Indiana Pacers,
best team in the league.
Indiana Pacers,
the team to beat in the East right now.
You guys don't understand
how good we were.
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.
We were the two best teams,
defensively and offensively.
So I knew whoever won this
was gonna win a championship.
That series, they pushed us to the limit.
In playoff basketball,
the margin of error is this small.
Everyone has
the physical capabilities. It's...
Whoa!
Hamilton is fouled this time.
Artest may be thrown out of the game,
but it's definitely gonna be a flagrant.
That's just not a good move.
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.
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.
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.
When we lose that series,
who wins the championship?
The Detroit Pistons
have just shocked the Los Angeles Lakers.
They were mentally tougher than we were.
I'm like, "You guys!"
It was just frustrating.
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."
"You're under contract six more years."
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.
You get that heart pumping.
It was something I couldn't control
at that time. It was every day. Every day.
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 f*ck you all doing?
I'm not gonna do this with you!
Come on, my n*gga!
Get your m*therf*cking security right!
We got a fight back here.
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.
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.
I never listened to Reggie.
So any time he's, like,
giving me leadership and mentorship,
I'm thinking, "Bust his a*s 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.
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.
"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.
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.
A challenge you relish.
Yeah. I'm ready for a challenge.
That's what I live for.
I make love to pressure.
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!"
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.
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 sh**t 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.
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.
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.
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?
- Detroit!
- Where we from?
- Detroit!
Detroit was one
of the hardest places to play.
They don't make it easy for you.
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.
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.
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.
They were a really good team.
I had broke my finger,
so I was in a cast.
Stephen was moved to the sh**ting 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.
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.
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.
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.
Time to meet and greet the ballers
representing the D... troit Pistons!
They had
the most dynamic announcer. Right?
And it gasses you, where you saying,
"Look, I'm at your a*s today, Detroit."
At 6'9", the center,
wearing the big red three,
B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-Ben
Wallace!
I remember they did the Ben Wallace
introduction. That got me hyped.
That got me hyped.
Like, "Let's bust they a*s. f*ck that."
At the time, I didn't know
Ben Wallace lost his brother.
Having that energy, you know, it was...
I knew I couldn't put that energy
nowhere else but into basketball.
It was like a powder keg.
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.
O'Neal.
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.
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.
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."
We knew right away we was the best team.
We were kicking their a*s.
They put a championship team together.
It was obvious.
'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.
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.
Artest with 24, O'Neal at 20,
Croshere 15, Tinsley 13.
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.
- He was going for a layup.
- 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.
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...
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 sh*t
for somebody to throw punches.
...in here to get him away.
Where it all turned
is when Ron went
and laid on the scorer's table.
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.
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.
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."
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.
Saw him throwing
the headband and the wristbands.
He definitely was losing his temper.
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?
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.
Bam!
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...
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!
This is a disgrace.
All the players, they're jumping in there
to try and get the other players out
because the fans have become involved.
Oh, what a sad scene here at the Palace.
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.
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.
Oh, what a sad scene here at the Palace.
Now another fight's breaking out
in front of the Pistons bench.
It's a fan.
This is very, very dangerous.
Fans are throwing...
I didn't see him coming at all.
Sucker punched me.
You know, quite a...
b*tch move, tell you the truth.
I just all-out sprint over there
to try to help him.
He slipped. Thank God.
It was the best miss of Jermaine's career.
'Cause if Jemaine would've connected
on that punch...
...that fan would have been dead.
...now onto the court.
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.
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.
An officer runs up
from behind me,
and he has his mace thing out,
and he's getting ready to mace Ron.
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?
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."
That's when I really got pissed off.
Like, y'all are not trying to help us.
It's really 15 against 30,000.
They're trying to get
the Pacers to go back to the locker room.
We all grab Ron,
and we start to run.
You see everybody merge
to one area.
And they throwing everything
they can get their hands on.
Now these ridiculous fans
trying to go at the players and throwing...
Somebody could really get hurt.
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!
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!
- 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.
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."
I remember looking. I see people rocking
chairs, trying to get the chairs loose.
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.
Then, all of a sudden,
I saw the chair up in the air.
People were trying to hurt me and others.
It was just a horrible, horrible scene.
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.
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."
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 th*gs, 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 th*gs."
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 n*gg*s 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 th*gs.
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.
Today, I announce
the, uh, following suspensions,
uh, resulting from the actions
at the Indiana Pacers
and Detroit Pistons game
on November 19th.
Uh, Indiana's Ron Artest has been
suspended for the remainder of the season.
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.
I never had a conversation
with David Stern about it.
The narrative was based on an edited...
conclusion on ESPN.
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.
The decision to suspend Artest
for the entire season, was that unanimous?
- It was.
- Why?
It was unanimous.
One-nothing.
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?
- Why did it change?
- Do you know why it changed?
- No.
- You don't know why?
- I don't.
Who got the suspensions?
- Players.
- Who took over this process?
- 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.
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.
I'd like to introduce David Gorcyca,
the Oakland County prosecutor.
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 m*rder
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.
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.
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 as*ault.
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.
It was just crazy.
Made it look like it was my fault.
They definitely did
a very, very loyal fan wrong.
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.
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.
- Can we talk to you?
- Can you leave our property, please?
- Asking if I can talk to you.
- No, man.
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."
It was really wrong.
Those guys shouldn't come up
like that into the stands.
- Especially if you have the wrong guy.
- Right.
- That's me.
- That's you?
Yup. There, that's me.
- Do you still have this jersey?
- I have it.
- Can I see it?
- Why?
- I gotta verify that...
- I have it. Am I in trouble?
No, no one's charged
at this point.
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.
It's apparent who threw the cup.
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.
Yeah. People have pointed
at you as the person who threw that cup.
- Right.
- When somebody says that,
"Were you the guy that threw the cup?"
how do you answer that?
Uh, at this point, you know, I...
No hable.
You know, I mean,
the video pretty much speaks for itself.
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?
I felt relief.
No. Jeez!
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.
- And tripping him over?
- Yeah.
I think John Green
precipitated this whole melee.
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 as*ault and battery
for throwing the beer,
as well as another count
of as*ault and battery
for coldcocking Ron Artest.
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 f*ck.
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 a*s.
They didn't decrease mine.
They decreased JO's.
And, uh, Ron had
his full-year suspension as well.
It was...
a significant amount of time
for what it was.
They were misdemeanor
as*ault 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.
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.
Reggie! Reggie! Reggie! Reggie!
Reggie! Reggie! Reggie! Reggie!
Reggie! Reggie! Reggie!
Once all this happened,
that's when I was like,
"It's time for me to hang it up."
If the brawl hadn't happened,
we would have been champions. No question.
That's the most f*cked-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.
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.
It's special, man.
It's pure and special.
It is.
For 18 years,
I've truly been blessed...
...to be a Pacer and a Hoosier.
Yeah, it's painful. Uh...
For me, it's painful.
He did about everything you could do.
I apologize for that,
because there's no reason why, uh, Reggie,
uh, should be sitting home without a ring.
The Indiana jersey I had on
was projected on television
at my worst moment.
So, wearing it, I wanna hide.
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.
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 f*cking 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.
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.
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.
He was on the verge of becoming one
of the greatest players ever. You know?
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.
I've never really tried to use
the word "regret,"
um,
but...
it's a part of me
that, uh,
has always bothered me.
Sky 4 was over the Palace of Auburn Hills
earlier today,
where crews were beginning
to demolish the place.
The Palace was home
to the Detroit Pistons
and saw three NBA championships
before it closed for good
after the 2017 season.
This thing was drawn out for years.
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.
People thought that ticket guaranteed them
to do whatever they wanted to do.
They can act and treat people
any way they wanted.
I'm not saying much of it was correct,
but they had a personal investment
in-in those ballplayers.
Pops up every single year.
Kids that wasn't even born
asking me about that.
Fans have
such an emotional investment in it.
There is a darkness there.
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 f*cking time
you can ask me about this sh*t.
I don't wanna talk about that piece
of sh*t m*therf*cker who threw that beer.
Okay? I don't wanna talk
about losing all that money no more.
This is a disgrace.
If there's any fault, it's on me.
I thought it would work.
I wasn't right.
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.
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