No Fun and Games on ESPN

Shaquille O’Neal, known for hyperbole, has said the Christmas Day game at Staples Center between his former team, the Lakers, and his current team, the Miami Heat, may be the “highest-rated game in the history of sports television.”

It might not even be the highest-rated NBA game that day.

There is suddenly increased interest in what was the Christmas Day undercard game -- Detroit versus Indiana at Indianapolis, on ESPN at 9:30 a.m. PST.

It will be the first meeting between the Pistons and Pacers since Friday night’s melee at the Palace in Auburn Hills, Mich.

The Laker-Heat game, supposedly the main event, will be televised at noon by ABC.

ESPN on Friday night, within seconds, went from televising a basketball game to covering a major news event -- a melee involving Pacer players and fans.

Now, ESPN finds itself in the middle of a police investigation. Its footage will be used by authorities in determining charges.

“We are cooperating fully with police,” ESPN spokesman Chris LaPlaca said Saturday. “But there really isn’t any footage to show them that we didn’t put on the air.”

The tone of Friday’s telecast took an immediate twist, and announcers Mike Breen and Bill Walton had to adjust.

“It was one of the ugliest scenes in NBA history,” Breen said as ESPN showed a flying chair landing in a group of people in the stands.

“I am devastated,” Walton said. “This is the lowest point for me in my 30 years in the NBA.”

Announcer George Blaha, in his 29th season with the Pistons, was working Friday’s game for local television, along with commentator and former Piston center Bill Laimbeer.

“This was the worst thing I’ve ever seen because it spilled over into the stands,” Blaha said. “Bill and I both said on the air that there is no place for anything spilling over into the crowd.”

ESPN reporter Jim Gray was right in the middle of things.

“I was standing right next to Ron Artest when he was lying down on the scorer’s table,” Gray said Saturday after returning home to West Los Angeles.

Gray said Artest was saying something to him when Artest was hit in the neck area with a cup of beer. That’s when Artest went up in the stands, although the fan he accosted was not the one who threw the cup.

Stephen Jackson followed his Pacer teammate into the stands and the Pistons’ Ben Wallace stood up on the scorer’s table.

“That’s when I decided I had better move,” Gray said. “I went out to the center of the court.”

It wasn’t the first time Gray’s job had put him in harm’s way. He was at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on June 28, 1997, when Mike Tyson was disqualified after biting the ears of Evander Holyfield.

“That was scarier,” Gray said. “Mike was still fighting after the fight had been stopped. He pushed the referee, he pushed his handlers and there were cops in the ring swinging billy clubs.

“I was worried about getting hit with a billy club.”

Gray followed Tyson to his locker room and interviewed him on live television in the hallway.

Friday night, none of the participants were on hand to interview on camera, although Gray talked to Artest off camera.

Gray did get an on-camera live interview with Jim Mynsberge, deputy police chief of Auburn Hills, who told viewers that six people had suffered minor injuries and one was taken to a hospital. By Saturday, the number was nine injured with two treated at a hospital.

Gray appeared rattled and could be seen sweating. He said that, naturally, he was a little rattled, but that he was sweating because he was ill.

“I was supposed to work a game in Milwaukee [between the Bucks and Heat on] Wednesday night,” Gray said, “but I had a 102-degree temperature on Tuesday. It was the first time in 26 years that I called in sick.

“I debated whether I should go to Friday night’s game. I decided to go, but I shouldn’t have. I was still very sick.”