Those Guys Have All the Fun - James Andrew Miller [284]
BRIAN ROBERTS, Comcast CEO:
When we looked at Disney, we saw a treasure trove of assets—Disney Channel, Disney animation, Disney movies, the ABC and Disney brands—and, of course, ESPN. As a cable company, we were well aware of what ESPN was doing and what it could be worth. We felt there was a real underappreciation of all the Disney assets at that moment in time, particularly ESPN.
BOB LEY:
This is a very proud place, and in 2004, we had ESPN25. It was hardly restrained. We closed the highway, there were flyovers at night, helicopter shots, spotlights, we even had turn-back-the-clock SportsCenter. I mean, we turned it loose. But for me, the best part of the celebration was when I took a bottle of Cristal and sat with Tom Reilly, the original producer—who’s still here—George [Bodenheimer], and Boomer. There we were, drinking $200 champagne out of Styrofoam cups till two thirty in the morning, telling stories.
It might have been just another minor basketball skirmish if not for a nasty fan, a sprint into the stands, and some controversial commentary. As huge a jolt as it was to the NBA, the tremor also shook the Richter scale at ESPN, where in the days and nights after the melee, fractious reaction threatened the concept of editorial independence and exacerbated racial tensions.
Less than forty-six seconds remained on the clock at the regular-season matchup between the Pistons and the Pacers in Detroit’s Palace of Auburn Hills on Friday, November 19, 2004. Detroit’s Ben Wallace took the ball in the low post, spun around, and, as he went for the basket, was fouled by Indiana’s Ron Artest. Wallace immediately came back at Artest and gave him a shove that sent Artest pedaling backward all the way to the three-point line.
Shoving and shouting ensued, and soon the fray became more of a brawl, except that Artest simply stretched out his 6 feet and 7 inches on the scorers’ table, and lay on his back with his hands clasped behind his head, as if resting in a hammock. Apart from the fact that it was hard to get Ben Wallace back to his bench, that might have been that.
But then, from out of the stands, a reckless spectator threw a cup of Diet Coke at Artest and hit him upside the head. Bad idea, bad behavior, and from that point on, bad night at the Palace. The fight resumed, with one unusual embellishment: Artest, followed by fellow Pacers Stephen Jackson and Jermaine O’Neill, leaped into the stands, heading for the cup-hurling fan. Eventually, anyone within fist-swinging distance became embroiled.
From their vantage point back at the Bristol studio, ESPN commentators John Saunders, Stephen A. Smith, Tim Legler, and Greg Anthony watched in stark dismay, if not disgust. They were to varying degrees indignant and outraged. But at whom?
GREG ANTHONY, Basketball Analyst:
The brawl at the Palace really left an indelible mark on my mind. We were in studio the night that it occurred, and the fallout from that, moving forward, sucked, and always will. That was probably one of the most powerful moments, I’d say, for me working in television. There was shock in how it all transpired and how it escalated. It wasn’t something that anybody was prepared to see happen. In a lot of ways, it was like walking down the street and you see somebody getting mugged or someone pulling a gun on you. You may think in your mind you know how you’ll handle that stuff, but you don’t really know until that moment of truth. This was not a skit, with everything laid out in advance. It was going on right then. You don’t have a lot of time to collect your thoughts. You gotta basically talk about what you just saw, and what you felt.
STEPHEN A. SMITH, Columnist:
When Ron ran up in the stands, my initial reaction on the air was somebody must have thrown something at him. In a moment like that, let me tell you, your emotions take over, and I think that was the case