Sparks–Shock brawl


The Sparks–Shock brawl was an altercation that occurred in a Women's National Basketball Association game between the Detroit Shock and Los Angeles Sparks on July 21, 2008 at The Palace of Auburn Hills in Auburn Hills, Michigan. Ray Ratto, of the Wall Street Journal, 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 in four years, the other being the Pacers–Pistons brawl in 2004, resulting in it being referenced as the Malace in The Palace II.

Build-up

A couple of plays before the brawl broke out, Shock forward Cheryl Ford missed a free-throw, resulting in many players boxing out underneath the basket trying to grab the rebound. Sparks' forward Candace Parker ended up with the basketball 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 go after Ford, before teammate Lisa Leslie stepped in to intervene. Emotions were running wild at this point, which would be a preview for the actual incident.

Altercation

With 4.5 seconds before the game was officially over, the fighting began on the court during a free throw attempt by Los Angeles's Marie Ferdinand-Harris. As Ferdinand-Harris scored the point, the Shock's Plenette Pierson made a hard box-out on Candace 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, as players and coaches from both teams quickly intervened. Detroit assistant coach Rick Mahorn came off the bench as a peacemaker, but inadvertently incited more violence when he knocked Lisa Leslie backwards to the floor as Leslie swung at him. Leslie's teammate DeLisha Milton-Jones pushed and punched Mahorn in the back in retaliation, causing the Sparks' Shannon Bobbitt and Murriel Page to both come off the bench and shove Mahorn from behind as well. Pierson, Parker, Milton-Jones, and Mahorn were all ejected 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.

Suspensions

According to WNBA rules:
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 where down to seven players for their next game which was two days later against the Houston Comets. As a result, the team signed 50-year old Hall of Famer Nancy Lieberman to a 7-day contract. Against the Comets, she played 9 minutes, handing out 2 assists, and broke her own record as the oldest player to ever play in a WNBA game.