04/16/24
February 29, 2012
SportsFilter: The Wednesday Huddle:
A place to discuss the sports stories that aren't making news, share links that aren't quite front-page material, and diagram plays on your hand. Remember to count to five Mississippi before commenting in anger.
I was just reading Grantland's An Oral History of the Malice at the Palace, which is pretty interesting. I got curious and looked up the old Sportsfilter thread and it's a bit heated. For whatever reason, this fight is far more entertaining and far less frightening now than it was at the time.
Also, I was watching this game live and had changed the channel as Artest was lying on the scorers table (Or it might have been right before the foul, anyway the game was over). I eventually flipped back to catch the post game show right about the time the Pacers were heading to the locker room with all kinds of beverages raining down on them. It's not quite as bad as turning off last season's game 162s but I was upset I missed it.
posted by tron7 at 03:04 PM on February 29, 2012
Thanks for the link back in time, tron7. That was almost as much fun to read the second time around.
And for those who haven't seen it, check out the Grantland oral history piece. It is quite good.
posted by 86 at 04:43 PM on February 29, 2012
US beats Italy 1-0 on a Dempsey goal.
posted by yerfatma at 05:11 PM on February 29, 2012
That argument we had on Malice at the Palice was a hilarious trainwreck. I probably shouldn't have charged into the discussion throwing haymakers, but it helped draw an incredible comment out of Taupe. It makes me want to find him and see if he ever got his PhD in Anti-American Studies.
I never would have expected, back in 2004, that Ron Artest would still be playing in the NBA in 2012 and would be a big favorite of fans across the league.
posted by rcade at 06:43 PM on February 29, 2012
By the way, I'm reformatting old discussions as they come up in the huddle. Some carriage returns were lost in the site move, and unfortunately the only way to fix it is manually.
posted by rcade at 08:34 PM on February 29, 2012
Wow, y'all were a laugh riot back in '04! I'm going to hit a thesaurus for a couple of months so I can really call rcade a pussy.
posted by tahoemoj at 09:02 PM on February 29, 2012
I never would have expected, back in 2004, that Ron Artest would still be playing in the NBA in 2012 and would be a big favorite of fans across the league.
cf: Eric Cantona. Artest might want to think about a movie career at some point as well.
posted by owlhouse at 10:26 PM on February 29, 2012
USA beat Italy in Italy, first time in history, on a beautiful goal worked from Bradley to Altidore to Dempsey. And the defense held up for the rest. Sweet!
posted by billsaysthis at 02:18 AM on March 01, 2012
USA beat Italy in Italy, first time in history
*Ahem*
- General Mark Clark
posted by owlhouse at 04:37 AM on March 01, 2012
That oral history of the brawl is a great read. My favorite quote, from Stephen Jackson of the Pacers: "I knew we had to get out of this arena before all these guys in the nosebleed seats got down to our section. That's the felons, the guys that really don't care about losing anything. If they come down there, somebody's going to really get hurt."
It's interesting to watch it again after knowing so much more about what took place. Artest flies right past the fan in the white cap who tossed the beer, John Green, to go after another fan who was too slow to stop celebrating the beer toss when he saw Artest coming. (Green, by comparison, adopted a posture of non-involvement at record speed.)
I'm shocked there were only three police officers in the entire arena.
Looking back, I was wrong to say Artest was throwing punches (you happy now, Taupe?), right about the potential for serious injury (the Pacers play-by-play guy fractured five vertebrae being accidentally trampled by Artest on his way to the fans) and I didn't fully appreciate the fear that the Pacers and staff must have felt to be in that arena after it got completely out of control. A lot more Detroit fans than the ones who got prosecuted were throwing objects. That's shameful. I hope they still feel like idiots for doing that.
I still think players have a responsibility to be the cooler heads in any conflict with imbeciles in the crowd. At least until they stop selling alcohol at sporting events.
posted by rcade at 08:36 AM on March 01, 2012
Charles Barkley this week with Jim Rome: "I think 80 percent [of NBA fans] are great. Twenty percent, I wish you could take them out back and just shoot them. ... Eighty percent of the fans are fantastic. But 20 percent of them are so mean-spirited and say the most nasty things to you, because they know you can't grab them."
posted by rcade at 08:39 AM on March 01, 2012
Thanks to the Malice at the Palace they take the caps off of the bottles at Pistons games. At least they let us keep our chairs.
posted by Ying Yang Mafia at 09:06 AM on March 01, 2012
I probably shouldn't have charged into the discussion throwing haymakers
Nice to see I added my standard incendiary comment on SportsFilter after getting fired up by the sports media to help touch things off. If not the Artest, I think I successfully played the Jermaine O'Neal in that thread.
Much like JO, now I'm too old and creaky to muster much of an offense. It's distressing/ depressing to think I was 26 when I wrote all that.
posted by yerfatma at 09:14 AM on March 01, 2012
You're still 30 years younger than the ushers who were in the middle of that brawl.
This comment of yours has aged well: "I'm still torn between loving and hating Ron Artest. Brother's interesting, and that's better than 95% of the NBA."
posted by rcade at 09:28 AM on March 01, 2012
Then there's today's headline:
"Knicks storm back and beat Cavaliers behind bench"
The Malice tinteth all, even the innocent and unaware...
posted by beaverboard at 09:55 AM on March 01, 2012
(the Pacers play-by-play guy fractured five vertebrae being accidentally trampled by Artest on his way to the fans)
When I read that I couldn't recall anyone even trying to stop Artest. Watched the video afterward and saw why: he didn't even slow him down, Artest went right through him.
posted by tron7 at 10:01 AM on March 01, 2012
I'm going to hit a thesaurus for a couple of months so I can really call rcade a pussy.
Fine, but in the name of all that is decent and respectful, at this solemn time, I would ask that no one make any further attempts at Breitbarting him.
posted by beaverboard at 10:30 AM on March 01, 2012
This comment of yours has aged well
Except that it refers to a name that doesn't exist anymore. Totally invalidates it, obviously.
posted by yerfatma at 11:43 AM on March 01, 2012
"If you're a professional baker and you haven't got the best flour, or the best yeast and you're using the water that you're not very happy with because you borrowed it off of someone else. If you're in a baking competition against a horse in a pinny you're still going to make the best bread."
- Guardian Football Weekly's John Ashdown explaining Chelsea's win over Bolton.