*Published on 11/19/19
15 years ago, an incident happened at the Palace of Auburn Hills that nobody who witnessed it — either live or on television — will ever forget.
On November 19th, 2004, the Detroit Pistons squared off against the Indiana Pacers in an early-season game that most did not think too much of. With less than a minute left in the game, the Pacers were leading by 15 when Pistons’ center Ben Wallace was fouled hard by Pacers forward, Ron Artest.
Following the foul, Wallace immediately got in Artest’s face and gave him one of the best two-hand shoves you will ever see.
That shove, as we all know, started a brawl that ended with multiple Pacers’ players going into the Palace stands to go after a fan who had tossed a beer on Artest.
Here is the video in case you forgot how it went down.
15 years later, former Pacers guard Reggie Miller, who did not play in the game, spoke to Dan Patrick on the Dan Patrick Show about what it was like to leave the Palace that night and also about what it was like to return later in the season. On the show, Miller revealed that when the Pacers returned to the Palace that there were bomb threats and that there were rumors that there were supposed to be “hitmen” and “assassins” waiting for them.
From USA Today:
When we played them again and had to come to the Palace, that’s when the issues of safety [arose], because people were calling in bomb threats. There were supposed to be hitmen and assassins, it was, like, crazy. We had to stay on the bus – I’m not kidding you – two hours, we couldn’t even go into the Palace the next time we came to play the Pistons because there were so many bomb scares. The police presence was unbelievable.”
Wow! Hitmen and assassins?!?! That is crazy!
