Ramblings' Journal

Timeline of the NBA's "Big Brawl" last night

Jackie Chan was nowhere to be found, but finally, we have found a fully sorted-out timeline of last night's game-ending brawl between the Pistons, the Pacers and the fans at The Palace of Auburn Hills.

The brawl began with 45.9 ticks on the clock as Indiana's Ron Artest blatantly fouled Detroit's Ben Wallace hard as Wallace was going up for a layup. Indiana was ahead 97-82. Or in other words, there was no way Detroit could even consider winning.

The melee escalated from there.

• Wallace wheels around and delivers a hard, two-handed shove to Artest's chin, which leads to pushing and shoving with several players near midcourt.
• Artest lies on the scorer's table with his hands behind his head, looking relaxed. Wallace tries to get at Artest, but is held back by teammates and coaches.
• As players shout at each other, Wallace throws a wristband toward Artest, who stands up briefly before lying back down on the scorer's table.
• An unidentified fan near midcourt hits Artest in the face with a cup filled with ice and a beverage.
• Artest storms into the stands and attacks a fan, who he thinks hurled the cup at him.
• Indiana's Stephen Jackson joins his teammate in the seats and starts throwing punches.
• David Harrison, Eddie Gill and Fred Jones of the Pacers, Detroit's Rasheed Wallace and former Piston Rick Mahorn try to break up the fight between Pacers and fans, who land their share of punches.
• Back on the court near Indiana's bench, Artest punches a fan wearing a Pistons jersey who walked toward him. After another fan tries to tackle Artest and as he tries to stand up, Jermaine O'Neal runs toward him and lands a vicious right hand on his face.
• Pacers players and coaches leave the floor and are showered with beer, popcorn and assorted debris, including a folding chair.
• Indiana's Jamaal Tinsley tries to go back on the court, holding a metal dust pan over his head before he is turned back to the locker room.

Pistons coach Larry Brown took the mike and attempted to quell the disturbance, but tossed the mike down in disgust after it became obvious that the fans were in no mood to be placated.

Players from both teams left the arena without commenting to the press, but both coaches gave their two cents about the ugly incident, both calling it "unbelievable."

UPDATE: Here's a video of the brawl, courtesy of my blog-brother Avery Toley.

Posted by mhking at November 20, 2004 06:52 PM