There are few other incidents that have earned unbridled notoriety throughout the history of competitive sports than that of the Malice at the Palace back in 2004. It's been nearly two decades since this ugly incident went down, but at this point, Metta World Peace — then known as Ron Artest — still has a few things to say about that fateful day.
According to World Peace, he actually apologized to Ben Wallace right after his hard foul. This was the incident that sparked the riot, which eventually led to lengthy suspensions and hefty fines to several players on the Indiana Pacers and the Detroit Pistons. As it turns out, however, things may have not escalated so drastically if only Ben Wallace had listened to what Artest had to say. Or at least this is how Metta remembers the incident:
“When I fouled Ben and he pushed me, the first thing I did, they don't show this, first thing I did was like this — apologized. My bad man,” World Peace said on a recent appearance on Club Shay Shay with Shannon Sharpe. “But Ben was so mad he just pushed me. I didn't get a chance to (say) ‘My bad.'”
To be clear, Metta World Peace himself admitted that he never really got to apologize to Ben Wallace. He gestured what looks like an apology, but he never actually uttered the words. Clearly, this was not enough to prevent Wallace from violently shoving Artest as a means of retribution. The rest, as they say, is history.
It doesn't look like Metta is washing his hands here. It seems like he's already come to terms with how much of a menace he was early (or throughout?) in his career, and he's put in a continuous effort to work on his mental health. What we can say is that Metta World Peace appears to be is in a much better place right now than he was many years ago.
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