A little over 5 months before the brawl, during the NBA Finals, a professional comedian went on National Television and said "Detroit will burn the city to the ground if the Pistons win." I was in tears the night of the brawl, cursing profusely. Tears of rage. Not at Ron Artest or Ben Wallace, but because we had brought shame to the city of Detroit, a city that didn't need to add to the stereotypes typified by the comedian's comments. We might as well have burned the city to the ground. We were graceless defending the le. And it wasn't just the brawl.
That being said, Ron Artest escalated the situation. He didn't use Palace security. He did something that had no precedent. Ben Wallace and the fan teed it up and Ron Artest knocked it out of the park.
As the clock wound down and it appeared that Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili and Bruce Bowen had sealed a victory for the Spurs in game seven of the NBA Finals, a feeling of relief came over me. The season was over and we wouldn't have this tarnish a Championship season. It was a bitter loss, but part of me was happy. It gave me heart burn an was not the least-bit enjoyable. From Larry Brown to Rasheed Wallace, arguments about the brawl to a bomb scare to knowing the Pistons' fans got involved and ruined an NBA le contender, to 2-1, 3-2, and 2-0 series deficits in the last three rounds, I was spent.