Imagine this: two players, once on opposite ends of one of the most infamous nights in NBA history—the Malice at the Palace—cross paths again. But this time, there’s no flying fists, no chaos in the stands. Just two men, Jermaine O’Neal and Smush Parker, standing across from each other years later, in different roles… but with the same old scar. It may not be the Malice at the Palace, but the wound is still raw. What seems like a good story now felt anything but funny back then.
Smush Parker’s journey never followed the script, and now he’s flipping the game again. After a 16-year playing career, he’s pursuing a rare dream: an NBA refereeing job. Meanwhile, Jermaine O’Neal —a former All-Star who averaged 13.2 points and 7.2 rebounds across 1,011 regular-season games—is building futures instead of buckets. He now runs Dynamic Prep Academy in Texas and coaches the basketball team. Different roles, same grind—and somehow, that grind has brought them face to face again.
So here’s what went down at one of Dynamic Prep’s recent games. Jermaine O’Neal sat courtside in full coach mode. Smush Parker? He wore the stripes, officiating as the game’s referee. But leave it to Brad Parker on Instagram to throw in some sideline spice. He looks at Smush and goes, “Jermaine O’Neal ever blocked your shot before
The answer is obvious—yet Smush wasn’t about to back down. He laughs and fires back: “Never!” Sure. Everyone on that sideline knew he was capping. One example of it was on February 2, 2007, in Indianapolis, Pacers forward Jermaine O’Neal blocked a shot by Lakers guard Smush Parker, and Indiana won 95–84.. It’s been 18 years and that block still hits.
But hey, he wasn’t finished. Smush smirks and adds, “But I never dunked on him either.” Fair enough. That’s called balance. Blocked? Maybe. Dunked? Never. Smush stayed undefeated in the art of witty comebacks—even if not on the stat sheet. But the history between them runs deeper than just sideline laughs—it’s shaped by moments that never really left the court.
Oh, the Malice at the Palace — even two decades later, it still plays in slow motion in every NBA fan’s memory. We all know the headliners: Ron Artest flying into the stands, Stephen Jackson backing him up, and Jermaine O’Neal throwing that infamous punch. But many forget: Smush Parker, then playing for Detroit, was on the court that night. Although he stayed out of the fray. “I’m at half court, watching it all because half court is the safest place to be,” Smush later recalled while talking to Basketball Network. “I had no job security. Maybe if I had a five-year contract, I could afford to get suspended, I might have been in the middle
Jermaine, however, was in the thick of it, and the aftermath scarred him deeply. “We show up every day to these teams, and we try to be the best we can be for these teams… Where’s the responsibility for them to us?” O’Neal said in hindsight. The league suspended him, the media vilified him, and he felt abandoned by the Pacers—the franchise he’d carried to greatness. “I lost all love for basketball… I did not love basketball the rest of my career… And that’s when my body started to break down.” It wasn’t just the fight that broke him — it was how the league and his team reacted. And yet, the love remains complicated. “The love and passion I have for that organization, that city, is unmatched for anything outside of my kids, my wife, and my family,” he still says.
What stung most: Tim Donaghy—later exposed in a betting scandal—refereed that game, and no official stepped in to stop the melee. “The ref who was fixing games [Donaghy] did that game,” O’Neal said. “You had the refs that didn’t even separate the teams. The teams were trying to separate each other, which is crazy to think.” Now here’s where things unexpectedly come full circle. Smush Parker, who once stood silently at half court watching it all unfold, is now part of that very profession Jermaine felt abandoned by.
It’s a quiet but powerful link. Jermaine was scarred by the officials’ inaction, while Smush now seeks to become the presence that might prevent future chaos. And yet, they still share laughter.
