Some scars never heal; they just become part of you. Jermaine O’Neal still carries his from the infamous Malice at the Palace brawl. However, the wounds are not from the fight itself, but from the abandonment by the team he bled for — the Indiana Pacers.
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The brawl refers to the 2004 incident during a game between the Pacers and the Detroit Pistons at The Palace of Auburn Hills. A foul on Ben Wallace and a fan throwing a drink at Ron Artest sparked a fight between players and fans, leading to one of the most shocking events the NBA has witnessed.
O’Neal, along with Artest, Wallace, and Stephen Jackson, was suspended for his involvement. Yet, neither the league nor the Pacers ever made an effort to clear his name.
“They left me out there to dry bro,” said O’Neal during a recent appearance on the Out The Mud podcast. “I’m talking about to this very moment. They have never said, ‘Ok well JO, listen man, I get it, it was a terrible situation.'”
O’Neal made it clear that he doesn’t believe the NBA owes him anything. Still, that didn’t ease the sting he felt.
“When you give everything you’ve got. The NBA has a responsibility, just like you tell us we have a responsibility to show up and represent them the way they need to be represented.”
“They watched the tape,” J.O. added, referring to the footage of the Malice brawl and how it was initially started by an intoxicated fan. Unfortunately, it seemed like too little, too late. O’Neal got involved on that fateful night, and his career was never the same.
The Pacers legend also opened up about how painful it was to feel abandoned by his team.
“The Pacers are special to me, and that’s why I was so hurt,” he admitted. “I was hurt, bro, when they didn’t say anything. Suit up for me like I suit up for you. Suit up for me like I suit up for your community. I treated your community like I was from your community.”
It’s hard to focus on playing the game after that kind of hurt. O’Neal compared it to being in love with a woman who then did you wrong. While he appreciated the life the NBA gave him, Indiana pulling the rug out from under him destroyed his love for basketball.
“I lost all love for basketball,” stated J.O. “I did not love basketball the rest of my career, and that’s when my body started to break down.”
The now 46-year-old further revealed that he took pills to cope with the physical pain his body was enduring. Pills only help for so long. But the pain J.O. felt from abandonment? “Forever. You let a narrative be created. Not only created, but let it be engraved.”
O’Neal did get some say in how the Malice would be remembered. He served as an executive producer for the 2021 Untold documentary, where Artest, O’Neal, Wallace, and Jackson shared their recollections of the brawl.
It’s hard to imagine having your dream taken away from you. O’Neal had it all. The 2004 Pacers were expected to be the team that won it all, but now, they’re remembered mainly for this incident. It’s understandable that it still hurts J.O. It probably still hurts everyone in Indiana.
