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REVIEW: Netflix doc tries to put closure on ‘Malice at the Palace’ 17 years on

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Dominic Menor, ABS-CBN News

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img alt="Ben Wallace and his Pistons teammates are kept apart from Ron Artest by Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle and official Tommy Nunez Jr on November 19, 2004 during their game at the Palace of Auburn Hills. Photo by Getty Images/file" src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2021/sports/11/18/20211119_pistons.jpg"/><figcaption>Ben Wallace and his Pistons teammates are kept apart from Ron Artest by Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle and official Tommy Nunez Jr on November 19, 2004 during their game at the Palace of Auburn Hills. Photo by Getty Images/file</figcaption></figure></div>Watching &quot;Untold: Malice at the Palace&quot; — the Netflix documentary on the infamous brawl between the Indiana Pacers and the Detroit Pistons — it was evident that the players&#x27; side needed to be heard. Seventeen years ago on Friday, not only did the Pacers and the Pistons empty the benches and go at it in full-scale mayhem but scores of fans also got in on the violence in what&#x27;s considered the darkest moment in NBA history involving on-court play.If one has been following this incident over the years, many of the details on &quot;Untold&quot; aren&#x27;t new; videos and articles dissecting the brawl are all over the Web.Secret Base&#x27;s 10-minute short doc on YouTube, a well-researched material on the subject, dives deep into the Malice at the Palace (as in Palace of Auburn Hills, the Pistons&#x27; home court), although it didn&#x27;t contain first-hand interviews of the players.Former Pacers forward Metta Sandiford-Artest, then known as Ron Artest, has candidly spoken about it in different programs. Teammate Stephen Jackson has mentioned it occasionally in media appearances. Artest and Jackson were even on a podcast together once to discuss it.In &quot;Untold&quot;, a third Pacers star gets to give his take — Jermaine O&#x27;Neal. O&#x27;Neal is an executive producer of &quot;Malice&quot;, and while the brawl&#x27;s main characters speak out in the documentary the focus is noticeably on O&#x27;Neal and his perspective. Of the All-Star center, Pacers general manager Donnie Walsh said: &quot;I think he probably suffered more than all the players.&quot;Promoting the doc, O&#x27;Neal has said he hopes he wouldn&#x27;t have to be asked about the incident after &quot;Untold&quot;, his way of airing his side and avoiding dealing with fan after fan after fan asking him his thoughts. And anybody who sees &quot;Untold&quot; could feel that way — many questions were actually addressed, including the most important one: Who exactly was to blame for the hideous melee?Well, there&#x27;s a lot of that to go around.The cup thrower, John Green, is to prosecutor David Gorcyca&#x27;s mind the one that &quot;precipitated the melee.&quot; In the media and NBA commissioner David Stern&#x27;s eyes, it was the players, particularly Artest, whom Stern suspended for the rest of that season. Even Walsh chimes in, pointing the finger at himself and saying the riot wouldn&#x27;t have broken out if he hadn&#x27;t assembled the team.But the what matters just as the who. And director Floyd Russ does a remarkable job laying down one butterfly effect after another and explaining the myriad back stories that led up to the Malice, helpful both for those not familiar with the incident and the ones who need a refresher.In Russ&#x27; hands, &quot;Untold&quot; takes on a &quot;Rashomon&quot; feel, with the main actors recalling their roles and laying bare their motivations and with viewers afterward feeling unsure that the long-held narrative — that the players deserved the most accountability — is the truth.Because the Malice happened before social media, all information was funneled out of Stern and through traditional news sources, making the &quot;Artest and co. were being thugs&quot; idea the focal point of the blame game. For Jackson, one figure didn&#x27;t deserve to be held liable.&quot;It wasn&#x27;t (O&#x27;Neal&#x27;s) fault, but he got blamed for it,&quot; he said.One bit in the documentary that was striking — at least for this writer — was the apparent gag order issued by Stern barring O&#x27;Neal, Artest and others from speaking about the incident for years but has since lapsed.Free to speak now, O&#x27;Neal has gotten a lot of things off his chest but it appears not even a well-made documentary on a premium streaming service could give one of the best big men of his era closure.&quot;This story was drawn out for years,&quot; O&#x27;Neal said. &quot;I didn&#x27;t want to talk to anybody. I just wanted to move on with my life.&quot;&quot;I&#x27;ve never been able to get away from it though.&quot;

Friday marked the 17th anniversary of the November 19, 2004 brawl between the Pacers and the Pistons. Have the main players of the 'Malice' moved on?

REVIEW: Netflix doc tries to put closure on ‘Malice at the Palace’ 17 years on

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REVIEW: Netflix doc tries to put closure on ‘Malice at the Palace’ 17 years on

Dominic Menor,

ABS-CBN News

Published Nov 19, 2021 09:33 AM PHT

|

Updated Nov 19, 2021 12:54 PM PHT

Read More:

NBA

Malice at the Palace

Ron Artest

Jermaine O'Neal

Reggie Miller

Indiana Pacers

Detroit Pistons

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