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On that same night, eventual men’s college basketball national champion UNC Tar Heels lost its season opener to Santa Clara.On this date in 2004, Indiana Pacers star Metta Sandiford-Artest (Ron Artest) jumped into the stands to confront a Detroit Pistons fan who had thrown a drink on him, igniting a brawl between fans and players that came to be known as the “Malice at the Palace.”
I watched both the UNC game and “Malice in the Palace” while sitting at the bar at Picasso’s on East Boulevard in Charlotte. I have been told that the bartender serving me that night was Roy Williams’s nephew. I don’t know if that’s true, but he definitely looked like him.