The Sparks–Shock brawl was an altercation that occurred in a

Women's National Basketball Association The Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) is an American professional basketball league. It is composed of twelve teams, all based in the United States. The league was founded on April 22, 1996, as the women's counterpart to the Natio ...

(WNBA) game between the

Detroit Shock The Detroit Shock were a Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) team based in Auburn Hills, Michigan. They were the 2003, 2006, and 2008 WNBA champions. Debuting in 1998, the Shock were one of the league's first expansion franchises. ...

and

Los Angeles Sparks The Los Angeles Sparks (LA Sparks) are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles. The Sparks compete in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) as a member club of the league's Western Conference. The team was foun ...

on July 21, 2008, at

The Palace of Auburn Hills The Palace of Auburn Hills, commonly referred to as the Palace, was a multi-purpose arena built in 1988 and located in Auburn Hills, Michigan. It was the home of the Detroit Pistons of the National Basketball Association (NBA), the Detroit Shoc ...

Auburn Hills Auburn Hills is a city in Oakland County, Michigan, Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 21,412 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census. Before incorporating as a city in 1983, the area was part of the now-defunct ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

, United States. Ray Ratto, of ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'', wrote, "It was in the classic sense, one of those things that occasionally happens when highly competitive people want the same thing and one can’t have it." This was the second major basketball fight to occur at The Palace of Auburn Hills in four years, the other being the notorious

Pacers–Pistons brawl The Malice at the Palace (also known as the Pacers–Pistons brawl) occurred during a National Basketball Association (NBA) game between the Indiana Pacers and the defending champion Detroit Pistons on Friday, November 19, 2004, at The Palace ...

on November 19, 2004, resulting in this incident being referenced as the "Malice at The Palace II".

Build-up

A couple of plays before the brawl broke out,

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

Cheryl Ford Cheryl Ford (born June 6, 1981) is an American former professional basketball player. As a member of the Detroit Shock, she won the WNBA championship three times. Personal life Cheryl Ford is the daughter of Bonita Ford and former NBA player ...

missed a free-throw, resulting in many players boxing out underneath the basket trying to grab the rebound.

forward

Candace Parker Candace Nicole Parker (born April 19, 1986) is an American professional basketball player for the Chicago Sky of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). She was selected as the first overall pick in the 2008 WNBA draft by the Los An ...

ended up with the ball after a hard contested rebound, before having the ball stripped away by Ford and being fouled. After the ball was taken from Parker's hands, she got upset and began to pursue Ford before teammate

Lisa Leslie Lisa Deshaun Leslie (born July 7, 1972) is an American former professional basketball player. She is currently the head coach for Triplets in the BIG3 professional basketball league, as well as a studio analyst for Orlando Magic broadcasts on F ...

stepped in to intervene. Emotions were running high at this point, which would be a preview for the actual incident.

Altercation

With 4.5 seconds before the game was officially over, the brawl began during a

free throw In basketball, free throws or foul shots are unopposed attempts to score points by shooting from behind the free-throw line (informally known as the foul line or the charity stripe), a line situated at the end of the Key (basketball), restricted ...

attempt by the Sparks'

Marie Ferdinand-Harris Marie Ferdinand-Harris (born October 13, 1978) is an American professional basketball player most recently for the Phoenix Mercury in the Women's National Basketball Association. Early years Ferdinand-Harris was born in Miami, Florida, and is o ...

. As Ferdinand-Harris scored the point, the Shock's

Plenette Pierson Plenette Michelle Pierson (born August 31, 1981) is a retired American professional basketball player who last played for the Minnesota Lynx of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). In the 2007 season, Pierson won the first ever S ...

made a hard box-out on Parker, causing both players to become entangled and fall over. As Parker tried to stand up, Pierson aggressively walked into her, knocking her back down, and resulting in Parker pulling Pierson down to the floor. Parker and Pierson both tried to throw a punch at one another before Parker was tackled by

Deanna Nolan Deanna Nicole "Tweety" Nolan (russian: Деанна Нолан; born August 25, 1979) is an American-Russian professional basketball player for UMMC Ekaterinburg of the Russian Premier League as well as the Russia women's national basketball team ...

, as players and coaches from both teams quickly intervened. Detroit assistant coach

Rick Mahorn Derrick Allen Mahorn (born September 21, 1958) is an American former professional basketball player who played power forward and center for the Washington Bullets, Detroit Pistons, Philadelphia 76ers, and the New Jersey Nets of the National Basket ...

came off the bench as a peacemaker, but inadvertently incited more violence when he knocked Leslie backwards to the floor. Leslie's teammate

DeLisha Milton-Jones DeLisha Lachell Milton-Jones (born September 11, 1974) is an American retired professional basketball player and head coach of Old Dominion. Milton-Jones played college basketball for the University of Florida. She was a first-team All-American a ...

pushed and punched Mahorn in the back in retaliation, causing the Sparks'

Shannon Bobbitt Shannon Denise Bobbitt
''wnba.com'', accessed . (born December 6, 1985) is an American professional basketb ...

and

Murriel Page LaMurriel Page (born September 18, 1975) is a former American college and professional basketball player who was a forward and center in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) for eleven seasons. Page played college basketball for the ...

to both come off the bench and shove Mahorn from behind as well. Pierson, Parker, Milton-Jones, and Mahorn were all

ejected Ejection or Eject may refer to: * Ejection (sports), the act of officially removing someone from a game * Eject (''Transformers''), a fictional character from ''The Transformers'' television series * "Eject" (song), 1993 rap rock single by Sense ...

from the game. The altercation also resulted in a season-ending ACL injury to Shock player Cheryl Ford, who was trying to restrain Pierson, and had to be taken from the court in a

wheelchair A wheelchair is a chair with wheels, used when walking is difficult or impossible due to illness, injury, problems related to old age, or disability. These can include spinal cord injuries ( paraplegia, hemiplegia, and quadriplegia), cerebr ...

Suspensions

According to WNBA rules: * Any player not on the floor who leaves the bench area during the altercation receives a one-game suspension. * Any player who attempts to throw a punch (successful or not) receives a one-game suspension. Because they were ejected after the altercation, Parker, Milton-Jones, Mahorn, and Pierson all started serving their suspensions the immediate next game. Also according to WNBA rules, each team must have at least eight active members to play a game. Therefore, suspensions were staggered by alphabetical order of last name. To have eight on the Sparks' roster, Page was allowed to play in the immediate next game and served her suspension starting with the second game after the altercation. Because she was not active, Powell served her suspension when she was taken off the inactive list.

Aftermath

With the suspensions and the injury to Ford, the Shock were down to seven players for their next game two days later against the

Houston Comets The Houston Comets were a Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) team based in Houston. Formed in 1997, the team was one of the original eight WNBA teams and won the first four championships of the league's existence. They are one of two ...

. As a result, the team signed 50-year old

Hall of Famer A hall, wall, or walk of fame is a list of individuals, achievements, or other entities, usually chosen by a group of electors, to mark their excellence or fame in their field. In some cases, these halls of fame consist of actual halls or muse ...

Nancy Lieberman Nancy Elizabeth Lieberman (born July 1, 1958), nicknamed "Lady Magic", is an American former professional basketball player and coach in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) who is currently a broadcaster for the Oklahoma City Thun ...

to a seven-day contract. Against the Comets, she played nine minutes, handing out two assists, and broke her own record as the oldest player to ever play in a WNBA game.

References

External links