On December 2nd, it was destined to be a special day, and earlier in the day, the Suns slaughtered the Spurs, who are known for their defense, with a score of 141-109.

The Spurs don't have much to do with a team they've met for the first time.

This is the first time that the Spurs have lost by more than 30 points in recent years, losing to strong teams such as Bobcats and Suns by consecutive scores.

And after losing this game, the Spurs and Suns both have a 12-3 record, and they also fell to second place in the West due to the win-loss relationship.

But this game didn't occupy people's attention for long, Hu Qingniu was watching the live broadcast, and it was time to come, one of the biggest stains in NBA history, the Auburn Hills Palace incident.

The iron fist is as majestic as Stern, and in the 30 years he has been in charge of the NBA, has there been no particularly frightening moment? When TNT celebrity Ernie Johnson tossed him that question the day before he left office, Stern didn't hesitate to give his own answer.

"Of course, the Auburn Hills palace brawl," Stern said, "and I still can't find the right adjective to describe how I felt, and I probably felt hopeless, like sitting in the dock of a courtroom and knowing that I was about to be convicted, and that feeling was terrible." That was perhaps the most feared moment of my tenure. ”

The historic Auburn Hills Palace event took place on November 19, 2004, an ordinary NBA game day. Now the direct conversation between the Pistons and the Pacers has been moved to December 2, but the tragedy has already happened.

The Pistons host the Pacers, the second of ESPN's two national broadcasts, closely followed by the Suns and Spurs.

Office workers may have just picked up their jobs and are ready to enjoy this showdown.

Jermaine O'Neal spoke out before the game.

"It's going to be an interesting game, because both of our teams don't like each other so much, and it's like when we were kids watching the Bulls and Knicks rival each other on TV, with players fighting for every ball on the court, pushing and pulling little things like that. Fierce confrontations are a tradition for Eastern Conference teams. ”

'We feel like they're a mountain ahead of us, we're younger, but we're a better team than them, we're more talented, and they're the defending champions, but we're the better ones. The hateful thing is that they keep saying, 'We're the boss, how good are you?' Let's talk about it later! That's the old enemy between us. ”

ESPN's reporters were very pleased with the atmosphere.

But everyone never imagined that this hatred would be infinitely amplified by a foul move, and the most terrifying moment in the history of the league was coming.

The score didn't really stretch apart in the first three quarters, and the Pistons narrowed the deficit to five points at the start of the fourth quarter, but they missed the next 10 shots, and the Pacers sealed the win with back-to-back three-pointers, and the young players got a little carried away on the court after taking control.

With 6:25 left in the game, Richard Hamilton swung an elbow at Jamal Tinsley's back as he grabbed the rebound, which was clearly seen by the Pacers bench on the side. The referee did not punish this malicious foul, and the anger of the players on both sides was obviously aroused.

With 1:25 left and the Pistons trailing by 11 points, Ben Wallace pushed the opponent to the post in order to block Ron Artest's layup, and the referee also did not blow the whistle.

The anger of the players is coming up, and things are gradually sliding into an irreparable abyss. In hindsight, Martial Saint Stephen Jackson said.

"Towards the end of the game, I remember someone on the team saying to Ron, 'You can respond'. I did hear that, and at first I thought it was for him to make a free throw, only to realize later that it was a reminder that he could retaliate with a foul. ”

With 57 seconds left, Jackson made two free throws for the Pacers, and the score came to 97-82, the Pistons attacked the frontcourt, and the ball was handed to the inside "Big Ben", when he was about to complete the layup, Artest jumped up from behind and pushed the opponent, "Big Ben" was angry, and rushed over and pushed Atay with his elbow, and the two sides formed a standoff situation.

"Big Ben" didn't give up, Atay retreated to the record table, and the referee and the players on the field began to try their best to pull the two apart. "Big Ben" continued to curse, while Atay lay down on the recording table and put on the headphones that the players used for post-match interviews.

"The Pistons were the root of the problem, they caused it all, and the Pistons fans and Wallace were the most vicious attackers, especially Wallace, who couldn't calm down no matter how hard he tried to persuade him," said ESPN courtside reporter Jim Gray after the game. He was sitting behind the desk, just a step away from Atay.

As for why Atai took the initiative to lie down on the recording table, he also had an explanation afterwards: "I knew that I had emotional control problems, so I kept seeing a psychiatrist, and the doctor told me that every time I encountered a situation where I felt that I was going to get out of control, I had to find a way to escape from the emotional scene as soon as possible and calm myself down, and I did it when I thought of the doctor's advice." ”

At this time, Stern, who was sitting in front of the TV at home, clearly saw everything that happened in the 90 seconds through the live broadcast screen, and he did not attract much attention when he broadcast here, after all, similar scenes, although not every day in the NBA, are also a common situation, and the players are separated from each other and calm down, and the game will continue to start soon.

However, Stern miscalculated, and everyone was shocked by the next scene.

A glass of beer fell from the sky in the audience, impartially spilled on Artest's body, and a second before the beer came down, "Big Ben" angrily took off his arm guard and threw it at Artai. The armguards didn't hit Atay, but the beer sprayed him. Atay burst into a frenzy, flicking off his headphones and scurrying past the two Pacers' official commentators and rushing to the stands.

Mark Boyle is a radio commentator for the Pacers, and when Atay got up with a "pout", he subconsciously got up and wanted to pull the other hand to avoid the situation from escalating, but Atay rushed out of the cage "beast" and directly stepped on his body and pounced on the fans in the stands.

Boyle was found to have five fractured vertebrae in his spine during the examination, and he reluctantly said, "Oh my God, if I could hold Ron, I would have gone to play in the NFL!" My commentary partner, Slick Leonard, was much smarter, and he quickly ducked to the side and escaped. ”

The next scene made Stern jump up from the couch at home, and things instantly exceeded his expectations.

Artest burst into the audience, grabbed the fan he thought had spilled beer at him with both hands, and threw him to the ground with a single punch. And the real "black hand" John Green hugged him from behind Artay, and at the same time, another glass of beer was poured on Artay, and almost all the Pistons fans who were watching participated, throwing all the debris they could find at hand on the Pacers players, and the scene instantly formed a chaotic situation between fans and players.

When Stern saw this scene, he was angry, worried, and helpless, and all his emotions rushed to his head. “holy **！”

He yelled at the TV, pulled out his phone, and dialed directly to NBA Vice President Lars Granick, who wasn't watching the game in front of the TV at the time.

"Are you watching? If you don't, turn on the fucking TV for me, and you'll not believe what's going on. Stern almost roared.

In the scuffle between fans and players, Pistons coach Larry Brown picked up the microphone of the live DJ and tried to persuade the home fans to calm down, but to no avail, the hostility of the entire arena has been ignited, and the sky of debris flew towards the Pacers players, including several iron seats.

According to later investigative reports, there were only three police officers at the scene at the Auburn Hills Palace Arena that night to maintain order. The Pistons and Pacers deployed their entire crews to barely pull the players off the stand. As soon as the players returned to the court, an aggressive fan took the opportunity to sneak up onto the court and chase after them to fight the Pacers players.

During the standoff, Xiao Ao knocked down an incoming Pistons fan on the court, who reportedly threatened Yao Ming on the sidelines. But O'Neal Jr.'s behavior undoubtedly angered the Pistons fans even more. The Pacers' coaching staff began to realize that they had to get the players off the court and back to the locker room right away, and assistant coach Chuck Persson was the first to escort Artest out, and at the entrance of the passageway, the Pistons fans' debris rained down like a torrent, and both of them were wet in clothes.

Although Reggie Miller followed the team to the away stadium this time, he wore a suit and hung a waiver card. At this point, he had to stand up to protect his players, but was sprayed with pepper spray from the police. The chaos at the scene has made it impossible to distinguish between the players, the fans and the staff.

The Pacers players and coach ran back to the locker room in the "rain of bullets" from the fans, and coach Rick Carlisle wanted to calm down the players.

When they had almost calmed down, Atay asked stupidly, "Jack, do you think we're in big trouble?" ”

Jackson didn't answer, but Tinsley on the side laughed faintly: "Ron, are you kidding?" Troublesome? It's a blessing that we can continue to play in this league! ”

When Ah Tai heard this, he looked at the blank wall in a daze, and everyone fell silent.

Artest's trouble is just around the corner, because of the suspicion of attacking fans and brawls, the police on the scene are ready to arrest him and take him back to the police station to deal with it, Reggie Miller has an idea, and puts Artai on the team bus in advance, ignoring no matter how the police call. The Pacers eventually left the arena and flew back to Indianapolis on a charter flight overnight.

Sophie Marceau Street in the estate.

It was late at night, the lights were bright, and the sound of the TV was still coming from the house.

Although it was the second experience, Hu Qingniu, like Wade, Dazhi, and O'Neill, sat in front of the TV in a daze, waiting for the follow-up development of the incident.

It goes without saying that this is a huge blow to the image of the league's struggling operations, and even for them sitting here, NBA people during this period will suffer from strange looks from others.

Attacking the fans, the whole stadium is out of control and chaotic. In any sports league, we have never seen fans like this, and the fans are the parents of the league, who buy tickets to watch the game, but are knocked to the ground by the players.

Whatever the cause and process, things have gone too far.