Artest in the Pacers-Pistons brawl

November 19, 2004 on Detroit’s home court.

It starts with Ben Wallace shoving Ron Artest (soon to be named “Metta World Peace”) after a hard foul, and then it turns into a crazy fight that led to Artest punching a couple of fans and being suspended for the rest of the year. This incident arguably destroyed the Indiana Pacers team as comprised at that time.

I don’t think Artest is a bad or violent guy, he just has some sort of emotional disorder. He’s done other erratic things.

Punished players after the brawl:

Player Team Suspension by the NBA Salary lost

•Ron Artest* Pacers Remainder of the season—86 games
(73 regular season games and 13 playoff games) $4,995,000

•Stephen Jackson* Pacers 30 games $1,700,000

•Jermaine O’Neal* Pacers 15 games (originally suspended for 25 games, reduced to 15 upon appeal) $4,111,000

•Ben Wallace Pistons 6 games $400,000

•Anthony Johnson* Pacers 5 games $122,222

•Reggie Miller Pacers 1 game $61,111

•Chauncey Billups Pistons 1 game $60,611

•Derrick Coleman Pistons 1 game $50,000

•Elden Campbell Pistons 1 game $48,888

•David Harrison* Pacers None None

* indicate players who faced legal consequences; they all received similar sentences:
One year probation
$250 fine
Community service
(60 hours for Artest, Jackson, and O’Neal; 100 hours for Johnson; quantity unpublicized for Harrison)
Anger management counseling