2004年北京时间11月20日下午，NBA发生了一起罕见的赛场群殴事件。活塞队在主场以82：97输给步行者，在全场比赛胜负已无悬念之时，本·华莱士和阿泰斯特在攻防中发生冲突，愤怒的球迷将矿泉水瓶掷向阿泰斯特，引发了球员和球迷之间的混战。结果两支球队的多名球员遭到为期不等的禁赛处罚。

外电报道如下：

NBA Commissioner David Stern's statement accompanying the announcement of suspensions for Friday night's Pacers-Pistons brawl:

"The penalties issued today deal only with one aspect of this incident - that of player misconduct. The actions of the players involved wildly exceeded the professionalism and self-control that should fairly be expected from NBA players. We must affirm that the NBA will strive to exemplify the best that can be offered by professional sports, and not allow our sport to be debased by what seem to be declining expectations for behavior of fans and athletes alike.

"There are other issues that the NBA must urgently focus on at this time. First, we must redefine the bounds of acceptable conduct for fans attending our games and resolve to permanently exclude those who overstep those bounds. Participants in and around the court must be assured complete protection from unacceptable fan behavior. Second, we must re-examine the adequacy of our current security procedures in Detroit and our other 28 arenas. The actions at Friday's game, though unprecedented, must now be factored into all efforts to guarantee the well-being of our fans. Third, we must develop and implement new NBA rules to assure that the unavoidable confrontations likely to occur in the heat of competition are not allowed to escalate to the level we witnessed on Friday even prior to the egregious behavior by individuals in the stands."

Suspension在这里表示“禁赛”，因为suspend除了“暂停，延缓”等意义，还有“停学，停职，禁赛”等含义。例如：The world anti-doping agency recommended suspension for 2 more women lifters for doping violation.（世界反兴奋剂机构建议对另外两名服用禁药的女子举重选手实施禁赛处罚。）