4<\/p>\n The famous ‘Malice at the Palace’ brawl took place on 19 November, 2004Credit: Getty<\/p>\n The fight was labeled as the \u2018most disgraceful in league history\u2019 by the Associated Press<\/a>, and resulted in fines, suspensions and even an entire documentary that was released on Netflix in 2021.<\/p>\n The game, at the Palace of Auburn Hills, had been relatively calm throughout. But, with 45.9 seconds left, the tone of the game massively changed.<\/p>\n With the score at 97-82 in favour of the Pacers, Pistons center Ben Wallace attempted a layup shot during the final minute but was fouled from behind by Pacers Ron Artest.<\/p>\n Wallace, clearly enraged, shoved Artest and a fight broke out, which didn\u2019t initially last too long.<\/p>\n READ MORE FROM THE NBAWhat caused malice at the Palace?<\/p>\n After the players were separated, game officials were discussing consequences of the spat. Artest was lying on the scorers table pending an interview when things escalated.<\/p>\n A Pistons fan by the name of John Green hit him with a drink, thrown from several rows up in the stands.<\/p>\n Artest charged into the crowd, and mistakenly grabbed another fan, Michael Ryan, who he thought he had thrown the drink.<\/p>\n Several Pacers players followed him into the stands, and it quickly escalated into a large brawl that felt like no-one was safe.<\/p>\n The game was never completed after a big police presence was called to the venue to restore order and later, allow the Pacers to safely leave the building.<\/p>\n The players quickly knew they were going to be in trouble for their actions. In the years after the brawl, Pacers Stephen Jackson revealed a conversation he had with Artest.<\/p>\n 4<\/p>\n The initial brawl between Wallace and Artest didn\u2019t last too long, but things escalated quickly afterwardsCredit: Getty 4<\/p>\n Artest charged into the stands after a fan threw a drink at himCredit: Getty<\/p>\n \u201cAfter we calmed down, [Artest] looked at me like, \u2018Jack, you think we are going to get in trouble?\u2019 Jackson recalled, via The Grantland.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cJamall Tinsley fell out laughing. I said, \u2018Are you serious, bro? Trouble? Ron, we\u2019ll be lucky if we have a freaking job.\u201d<\/p>\n The team were hit with very harsh punishments as a result of the brawl. While today\u2019s NBA, led by Adam Silver, focuses on fouls for taunting, the 2004 era, led by David Stern, focused on dealing brutal punishments to clean up the league.<\/p>\n Artest received a 73-game suspension, resulting in $5,288,545 in lost salary for his involvement, while Jackson was suspended for 30 games and lost close to $2 million.<\/p>\n Jermaine O’Neal was suspended for 25 games and lost $4,510,975, though this was later reduced to 15 games and $2,706,585.<\/p>\n Ben Wallace was out 6 games and $439,024, Anthony Johnson got 5 games and $120,000 and Reggie Miller lost $60,000.<\/p>\n 4<\/p>\n Five Pacers players involved were hit with criminal charges as a result of the brawlCredit: Getty<\/p>\n Many of those involved in the fight were hit with criminal charges as a result of the violent nature of the brawl.<\/p>\n Read More on talkSPORT<\/p>\n O’Neal faced two counts of misdemeanor assault and battery, while teammates Artest, David Harrison, Jackson and Johnson faced one count each.<\/p>\n Stay up to date with the latest from the NBA across all platforms – follow our dedicated talkSPORT USA Facebook page<\/a> and subscribe to our talkSPORT USA YouTube channel<\/a> for all the news, exclusives, interviews and more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It is very common across the world of sports that fights break out, but it’s very uncommon that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":725124,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3774],"tags":[7,2346,6023,10120,8362,188,113,126,3866,11771,31918,90031,90035,11620,6,50066,50065,62795,4815,3101,90034,6050,80846,77065,6021,114,33730,90033,14138,90032,4464],"class_list":["post-725123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-indiana-pacers","tag-basketball","tag-basketball-news","tag-basketball-updates","tag-ben-wallace","tag-david-stern","tag-detroit-pistons","tag-indiana","tag-indiana-pacers","tag-indianapacers","tag-jermaine-oneal","tag-malice-at-the-palace","tag-malice-at-the-palace-documentary","tag-malice-at-the-palace-fines","tag-metta-sandiford-artest","tag-nba","tag-nba-brawl","tag-nba-fight","tag-nba-fines","tag-nba-history","tag-nba-news","tag-nba-player-fines","tag-nba-rumors","tag-nba-rumours","tag-nba-suspensions","tag-nba-updates","tag-pacers","tag-palace-of-auburn-hills","tag-record-nba-suspensions","tag-ron-artest","tag-sports-fines","tag-stephen-jackson"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=725123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725123\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/725124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=725123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=725123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=725123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"General](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/user-expressly-acknowledges-agrees-downloading-1078020591.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Ben](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/2004-game-palace-auburn-hills-1078020641.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Ron](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/user-expressly-acknowledges-agrees-downloading-1078020603.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Ben](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/2004-game-palace-auburn-hills-1078020641_03ed24.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n