Fifteen years after ‘The Malice at the Palace’: How the NBA bounced back from bedlam
(Top Photo by Allen Einstein/NBAE via Getty Images) https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/1387698/2019/11/18/fifteen-years-after-the-malice-at-the-palace-how-the-nba-bounced-back-from-bedlam/ Michael Lee The Athletic / The New York Times - Nov 18, 2019 David Stern was having a quiet evening at home, his sweet tooth calling him into the kitchen to get his second dessert for the night, when he saw something that nearly made the then- NBA commissioner drop his plate. The wildest scene the league had ever seen — beer coming from the stands, players decking fans and pure bedlam ensuing all over the Palace of Auburn Hills — was being broadcast live on national TV, to his dismay. Stern scurried over to his phone and called deputy commissioner Russ Granik. “I said, ‘Holy Moses, Russ.’ I probably was a little more colorful than that,” Stern said in a recent telephone interview with The Athletic , “but I said, ‘Turn your TV on, you’re not going to believe what’s unfolding here.’” The incident, ...