Ron Artest's Malice at the Palace and 20 Most Infamous Moments in NBA History

The NBA is a week deep into a lockout that is threatening to take away precious basketball games this fall and possibly even into the winter and spring.

With the lockout comes almost no news about player movement, speculation, free agency or trades, so that kind of puts me in a bind here when I'm looking for things to write about. Thus, like anybody else, I decided to take a look at the past.

The NBA has a rich history for the short amount of time that it has been around, and it shows that in the number of comical and infamous moments that have happened over the years.

Anytime you get a dozen athletes in their twenties running around who are easily recognizable because they don't wear hats or helmets on the court, you're going to see some kind of trouble brewing.

There are things that have happened in the past 60 years that were so detrimental to the league that it changed the way the league was run forever, and there are others that are still equally infamous but are also hilarious in retrospect.

I've combed the annals of time and pulled out the 20 most infamous moments in NBA history for your reading pleasure.

20. 1956 NBA Finals

What if I told you that on alternating days you had to travel from Ft. Wayne to Philadelphia (or vice versa) and play 48 minutes of NBA championship basketball?

Better yet, what if I told you that we aren't going to be taking any airplanes, because that crap is for wussies?

Pretty daunting task, right? Well, the 1956 NBA championship is famous for being the only championship series to follow the 1-1-1-1-1-1-1 format. Making it worse, they played one game on and one game off.

Needless to say, the format was scrapped the following season.

19. Chris Andersen in the Dunk Contest

This is the first of the David Stern conspiracy theories that you will see on this list, but this one is a bit more far-fetched and may only have one believer...me.

Back in 2005, Chris Andersen set white people back at least a decade when we are talking about basketball when he attempted the same dunk roughly 748 times before settling for a measly little slam, putting himself and everyone else out of their misery.

Now, just under a year later, Andersen was suspended from the league for using a "drug of abuse," which could be anything from some kind of amphetamine to PCP or LSD. Here's where my conspiracy theory comes in.

How many players in the NBA smoke pot? About 70 percent to everyone? And how many of them do you see getting busted and actually punished for smoking a little weed? Pretty much nobody that wasn't in a Jail Blazers (more on them later) uniform, right?

Well, here's how I see it going down with the 2006 Dunk Contest approaching. I think Andersen was interested in competing again and was trying to drum up support when Stern called him into his office, where the following (totally speculated) exchange took place.

Stern: Sit down, Chris. I hear you're interested in the dunk contest this year.

Andersen: Ye—

Stern: Don't interrupt me, you degenerate. You will not embarrass one of our most-watched events of the year again. I have positive drug tests on almost every player to have played this game in the past decade, and yours are for a little more than some weed here and there. Get out of my sight! I never want to see you in this league again! (Incoherent yelling and squawking).

From there it took Stern two years to get over Andersen's embarrassing dunk contest and let him back in the league.

18. The Marv Albert Scandal

This may not be something that happened directly to the NBA, but it was a scandal involving a guy that is now the voice of the league, and it was about as funny as it could have possibly been.

The story goes that Marv Albert was having a torrid love affair (words that just don't sound right to say out loud, so don't even try it) with a 42-year-old woman for a decade. She accused Albert of calling her into his room to fix her fax machine, but when she came in he was wearing just a belt and women's underwear.

The rest of the story gets too frightening for me to want to even think about, including Albert biting the woman on the back multiple times.

One thing it did give us, though, is nearly 15 years of Marv Albert jokes to play with that have just been delightful. (Marv Albert voice) YES!!

17. Michael Jordan's First Retirement

The second of the David Stern conspiracy theories, this one is a tad more believable than the last, although still pretty out there.

In 1993 Michael Jordan retired from basketball, citing his desire to play baseball and getting burned out on basketball.

However, conspiracy theorists swear up and down that he was suspended privately by the NBA for his gambling problems, and it's not like there isn't any evidence behind that.

Whether it is true or not, it has just added to the legend that A) the NBA coddles its stars and will do anything to protect them and B) David Stern is a power-hungry maniac.

16. 1985 NBA Draft

Are you getting tired of conspiracy theories yet? Well, this is the last one (unless you believe that David Stern actually had Tim Donaghy rig some of those games and Donaghy just took it a step too far and started betting on the games he was ordered to rig—then keep on thinking crazy thoughts, I suppose).

The 1985 NBA draft was the first one to include the draft lottery, trying to make it so teams wouldn't tank at the end of the season just to get the No. 1 pick.

Well, the story goes that Stern wanted the Knicks to get the No. 1 pick, which would land them Patrick Ewing and hopefully turn them into a high-grossing big attendance draw. ESPN's Bill Simmons goes into it in depth here, so I'll give you the short version.

Supposedly, the guy who stuffed all the envelopes into the glass drum creased the corner of the one with the Knicks inside. Stern then felt around in the drum for the one with the creased corner, pulled it out, looked a bit guilty (this was the first fix he set in, after all) and voila, the Knicks have the No. 1 pick.

15. 19-18 Game

Back in the day, or back in the dizzy, as the kids say these days, the NBA was a much less fan-friendly game.

There was no shot clock until 1954, which led to some very interesting scores getting put up.

In the early 1950s, the NBA was a physical, low-scoring game, so when the fourth quarter rolled around, whoever was up would just hold the ball as long as possible, absolutely grinding the game to a halt.

It got so bad that in November of 1950, the Minneapolis Lakers were defeated by the Fort Wayne Pistons in a 19-18 barnburner where the teams scored a combined four points in the fourth quarter.

14. Gilbert Arenas Brings His Guns to Town

It was over a year ago now that Gilbert Arenas drew his guns on then-teammate Javaris Crittenton when they were having an argument over gambling debts from a card game. Crittenton then drew his gun, loaded and cocked it, according to reports.

After the news broke, Arenas attempted to poke fun at the incident, pretending to draw guns and "shoot" his teammates with his finger pistols.

The next day (probably after David Stern went on a rampage where he attacked Adam Silver with a sack of deflated, never-used microfiber basketballs), Stern suspended Arenas indefinitely.

13. Jerry Krause Kills the Bulls

Imagine if back in 1928, fresh off winning two World Series, Yankees owner Colonel Ruppert decided to let go of Babe Ruth and George Pipgras and then trade away Lou Gehrig and fire legendary manager Miller Huggins, leaving Tony Lazzeri to lead the team.

Would anybody call that a good move by management? No? I didn't think so.

Well, Jerry Krause made a comment in 1998 that front offices were the reason for championships, insinuating that he was responsible for the Bulls' success. He and the rest of the management proceeded to force out Phil Jackson, force Michael Jordan into retirement, let Dennis Rodman walk and trade Scottie Pippen, leaving them with Toni Kukoc to lead the team into the future.

Basketball fans everywhere should rue the day this man became the GM of the Chicago Bulls.

12. Tape-Delayed Finals Games

Tape-delayed basketball by itself is a travesty, but when it's done in the playoffs—now that's just terrible.

The U.S. wasn't exactly enamored by the NBA in the '80s, so CBS bought the rights to the playoffs and began airing some games on tape delay.

The most inexcusable game that ended up on tape delay in most of the country was Game 6 of the 1980 NBA Finals.

You see, there was this Magic Johnson kid, and he had himself a humdinger in that game.

All Magic Johnson did in that game was score 42 points, grab 15 rebounds and drop seven dimes, so yeah, it was kind of a big deal.

11. The Gold Club Scandal

Ladies and gentlemen, the Gold Club Scandal is probably the funniest thing to happen to the NBA in the past 20 years, and I still get a chuckle out of it to this day.

The Gold Club was a strip club in Atlanta, Georgia whose owners and management were charged with everything from prostitution and credit card fraud to police corruption, racketeering and money laundering, so you can see why David Stern wouldn't want any of his players linked to an investigation like this.

However, scores of athletes were linked to the Gold Club, which would have its—ahem—girls give "preferential treatment" to whatever professional athlete walked through the door, which it thought would get them to come back and make them visible in the club, making it more popular.

Needless to say, this ploy worked, and everyone from Larry Johnson and Dennis Rodman to Reggie Miller was linked to the club. It also brought forth quite possibly the funniest quote in NBA history when Patrick Ewing was talking about one specific trip to the Gold Club: "The girls danced, started fondling me, I got aroused, they performed oral sex. I hung around a little bit and talked to them, then I left."

Magnificent, just magnificent.

10. The Decision

The Decision was the beginning of the downfall of the reputation of LeBron James.

Sure, he had his haters leading up to The Decision, but afterward more people around the league dove off the LeBronwagon head first.

Many people will point to his jersey sales, which were No. 1 in the league yet again, as evidence that people don't actually hate him as much as they say they do, but when a player switches teams, of course he is going to have high jersey sales. He went to a new team, and everyone who is a fan of that team will want to buy that jersey.

9. Anything Jail Blazerie

Portland now is the epitome of a fan-friendly team, and that's great, because Portland has some of the most lively, dedicated fans in the country, but the team wasn't always this fan-friendly.

The period of time in question really started when Mo Cheeks took over the head coaching job in Portland in 2001 until 2005 with simultaneously one of the most talented and dysfunctional teams in the NBA.

Real quick I'll run through the short list of players involved in this team and what they did to give them such a terrible reputation.

Ruben Patterson was a registered sex offender who was arrested for domestic abuse; Zach Randolph had many run-ins with the law, including a DUI, plus he knocked out Patterson during practice; Damon Stoudamire and Qyntel Woods were just potheads who got caught; Shawn Kemp left midway through one of his two seasons there to go to rehab; and Rasheed Wallace did Rasheed Wallace things.

What a fun team.

8. Latrell Sprewell Treats P.J. Carlesimo Like Bart Simpson

Latrell Sprewell was one insanely talented player, and in his prime he could have gone toe to toe with any guard in the game. Unfortunately, he was also just a bit off-kilter upstairs.

In a practice at the beginning of December in 1997, Warriors head coach P.J. Carlesimo told Spree he needed to make crisper passes. Spree retorted that he wasn't in the mood for criticism. When Carlesimo got near him, Spree grabbed him by the throat and wrestled him to the ground, choking him until teammates pulled him off.

Even crazier, Spree returned about 20 minutes later and threw a punch at Carlesimo, barely grazing the guy.

Sprewell was suspended for the remainder of the season, which was the longest suspension in league history up until the Ron Artest incident.

7. Kobe Bryant Rape Case

I understand that Kobe Bryant was acquitted, and I'm not one of those guys that goes around calling Kobe Bryant a rapist, but it can't be denied that this was one of the most infamous basketball moments in the past 50 years.

It dragged one of the league's preeminent superstars through the mud, sullying his name and making him even more polarizing than he was before.

6. Len Bias and Cocaine

The late 1970s and early '80s for most of professional sports was full of guys popping pills and sniffing around clubhouses.

Cocaine was rampant in the NBA for so long that it led to shortened careers of players that were once promising, Roy Tarpley, Chris Washburn and John Drew getting banned for life and the unfortunate and untimely death of the promising young star Len Bias.

5. Two Lockouts in 13 Years

As far as I am concerned, David Stern is the best commissioner in the three major professional sports in America.

He isn't dragging his feet when it comes to the future like Bud Selig, and running the NFL is so easy that Roger Goodell may have a little nap cave under his desk a la George Costanza. Hell, his biggest problem is how to split up the giant piles of money the NFL is bringing in. I say he should just put it in a giant pile in the middle of a room and swim in it like Scrooge McDuck.

Stern has perfectly figured out how to manipulate the league into becoming a fan-friendly game, with just a few things slipping through the cracks along the way (The Decision, Jail Blazers), and expand worldwide.

However, with the second labor dispute in just over a decade ending up in a lockout, this is without a doubt going to be the black eye that mars his history with the league.

4. Racism

Much like any sport before the 1970s, basketball players had to endure very harsh racism almost everywhere they went. That's not to say racism went away in the '70s—just that the period before that was much more intense and heated.

Almost every black basketball player from that era has a story about racism he encountered, from Bill Russell to Oscar Robertson and everyone in between.

This isn't so much a fault of the NBA, but just a fault of this county at the time period. Nonetheless, it was such a huge part of the history of the game and thus shaped the demeanor of some of the early superstars that I think it had to be included.

3. Kermit Washington Obliterates Rudy Tomjanovic

The Kermit Washington punch is probably the most historic punch in the history of the NBA, and it singlehandedly freaked out everyone in the NBA front offices at the time.

In the particular fight, Washington was initially the peacemaker, trying to break up a scuffle between Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Kevin Kunnert until he got dragged into the scuffle. A few punches later, with Rudy Tomjanovic running at him full speed, Washington reared back and delivered a blow that sent Rudy to the ground.

The punch combined with Rudy running at Washington was so forceful that it fractured his skull, broke his nose and jaw and left him lying in a pool of blood with spinal fluid leaking into his skull.

This was at the height of the game's violent era and led to the league adding a third referee to the squad who would stand at the mid-court line to call fouls, which could have potentially prevented this from happening in the first place.

2. The Malice in the Palace

This is easily the most surreal moment in the NBA in my lifetime. Going back and watching it again doesn't seem real—it seems somehow staged, like it's right out of a movie. You almost have to convince yourself that this actually happened.

The most impressive part about the whole ordeal, however, is the fact that Stephen Jackson out-crazied the King of Crazy, Ron Artest.

After the full face shove from Ben Wallace and the lounging on the scorer's table and the beer bull's-eye, Artest charged into the crowd, but Jackson charged after him. He didn't know what was going on, but he knew there was a fight, and he was going to get him some. He may have tried to land a punch on every Piston, from Wallace right down to Darko Milicic and Larry Brown.

For me, the most surreal part happens when Brown gets on the PA and tells the fans to calm down and stop throwing things on the court. When a situation arises where the coach of a team feels necessary to address the fans before someone does something out-of-this-world insane, you know you have witnessed the screwiest moment in NBA history.

1. Tim Donaghy Scandal

The Tim Donaghy scandal encompasses so much more than the melee in Detroit that it's hard to make an argument that there was anything more stunning in the history of the NBA.

People had always whispered and shouted about fishy dealings going on with the referees in the league, one of the more famous games being Game 6 of the 2002 Western Conference finals between the Los Angeles Lakers and Sacramento Kings, featuring—you guessed it—Tim Donaghy.

There are instances throughout history that have involved more people, been more immediately impactful and have caused larger knee-jerk reactions, but this is something that completely outs the integrity of the game, something no commissioner wants to see while he is at the helm of the league.

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