One man claims to have a souvenir from the most infamous event in NBA history, the Malice at the Palace. And not any souvenir, mind you, he has THEE souvenir. The cup that started it all. It’s impossible to verify the man’s story. The Pistons gave away thousands of blue souvenir cups that night. And amid the chaos, who knows how he kept his eye on this specific one, especially when Ron Artest and Stephen Jackson were throwing haymakers at everyone in the crowd.
But this man has a backstory, a lengthy one he tells on reddit.
I had never shown this before, since I’ve got no real proof aside from the story myself and my friends tell. Cellphones at that time didn’t have cameras like they do now, at least mine didn’t. In this Video @ 6:20 is a slow-mo replay of the cup in question. Yet I don’t need proof to know that what I have in my possession is genuine. Here’s the backstory:
…Fast forward to about 4 minutes after the players had left for the locker rooms. Mason, the announcer, and other police/security guards were demanding we all leave in a calm fashion as quickly as possible. I had to retrieve that Cup. I had in my mind the idea that if I myself were to get it, I would be pepper sprayed or some sort of force would be taken upon me. So, being the kind hearted gentleman I am, I asked my girlfriend to lunge for it. She obliged immediately, and simply walked down to the court and picked it up. At this point, security was not within 100 feet of us, and the Cup itself was still laying where it had been for a good 10 minutes. She picks it up, still with traces of liquid in it, which was not alcohol but definitely a soda of some sort. She hands it to me, I tell her to place it in her purse. The three of us leave with gusto.
Now it resides at my father’s home. No markings of the chaos, no real authenticity of the event. Just the story that can be vouched by other people, and just maybe video somewhere out there. To this day I refuse to watch footage of the Malice. Just thinking about it makes my eyes well up, I get a lump in my throat and I am overcome with remorse. A lot of things changed that night, most for the better, but the images and stories I ponder from that night will live with me forever, as will this mundane yet infamous article of NBA history.
There are no good still shots of the cup, just grainy ones like these.
So yea, this guy could be pulling our leg or he could have the greatest souvenir ever. I want to believe his story.