Much was said following last November?s basketbrawl tilt between the Indiana Pacers and Detroit Pistons at The Palace of Auburn Hills, none of which was complimentary, to say the least.  

 The NBA has had its face dragged through the mud by fans and media alike, thanks to one hard and unnecessary foul by Pacers' bad boy Ron Artest on Pistons' center, Ben Wallace.  Yet that one foul triggered a chain of unruliness that had been unprecedented.  The result?  A permanent smudge on the league?s relatively unsullied reputation.

 Detractors declared the NBA had become a goon league with a huge security problem.  Critics argued that the astronomical salaries players make today had obviously created an arrogance that allowed them to think they could wreak havoc in the stands, of all places. Pundits proclaimed the incident would cause irreparable damage to the game, as fans would no longer spend their hard-earned money on a bunch of glorified punks.  ?Disgraceful,? ?shameful,? ?tragic? and ?embarrassing? were just a sampling of adjectives used to describe the incidents of Nov. 19.  

 There is no question what happened that night was unfortunate.  It is too bad, for one night anyway, the NBA had to be mentioned in the same breath as the WWE.  

 But let?s not fool ourselves here.  As much as we all hated on the league in the aftermath, we all wanted more. We craved more.  We wanted a repeat performance.  We didn?t have our eyes glued to TV sets Friday night to watch a mere basketball game, we tuned in because we wanted to know what possibly could happen next.  

 So what if the Pacers and Pistons have played twice since Nov. 19 ? both at Conseco Fieldhouse ? and nothing happened?  This time would be different, or so we hoped, because the game was being played at The Palace ? the scene of the crime.  

 We didn?t care that Friday?s game was of paramount importance to the Pacers as they try to lock up a playoff spot in the East without the services of the injured Jermaine O?Neal and Jamaal Tinsley, and the suspended Ron Artest - basketbrawl?s primary culprit ? though we should have.  We didn?t care that Reggie Miller would be making his final Palace regular season appearance and is on the verge of passing Jerry West for 12th on the NBA?s all-time scoring list, though we should have.  

 Instead, we wanted to know how the Detroit fans would react to Stephen Jackson ? the lone suspended Pacer to be in uniform Friday night ? and whether Jackson would allow the fans to get under his skin just enough for him to deliver a punch or two.  We wanted to know whether ?Turtle? from the HBO hit show ?Entourage? would come onto the court again with his Pistons jersey and take shots at a civilian- clothed O?Neal.  Or if beer would be doused on the Pacers as they warmed up.  Or if an exasperated Pistons head coach Larry Brown (or in this case, assistant coach Gar Heard, still replacing a mending Brown) would take the microphone again, urging fans to behave themselves for the sanctity of the game, only to find out, once again, that he couldn?t get his mic to work.  

 None of which happened, of course, Friday night.  Nothing 'except' a bomb threat (which ended up being nothing but a practical joke, it would seem, by an obnoxious moron with too much time on his/her hands) before the start of the game which delayed the proceedings for 85 minutes as well as a brawl in the stands involving fans, in which one man was escorted by his wrists and ankles.    

 Nearly 45 minutes before game time a bomb threat was called into the switchboard at The Palace.  According to Auburn Hills chief of police Doreen Olko, the caller said there was a bomb in the Pacers? locker room.  

 ?Nothing was found,?  Olko said.  ?We are completely confident that the Pacer locker room and the entire building is safe.  If not, we wouldn?t be here.?  

 ?We never believed that the building was unsafe.?

 Unfortunately, another black eye on the city of Detroit.  Like Motown needed further embarrassment.

 The hypocrisy surrounding the Pacers-Pistons Palace reunion was astonishing.  The reason we as fans and members of the media supposedly shunned the rivalry, and the game as an entity, is exactly the same reason why we were so fascinated in unraveling the next chapter.  And I guess with Friday?s bomb threat, you all received what you asked for, didn?t you?  Some cheap, over-the-top thrill.  

 Sensationalism.  Where would we in the media be without it?  We wouldn?t have an audience ? be it readers, listeners and/or viewers ? that?s for sure.  And Friday's Palace rematch would have been but a blip on the radar screen.

 By the way, in case you were wondering, the Pacers won the game, 94-81.  

 Hopefully - though I realize I?m likely in the minority ? we?ve seen the last of this saga until next season.  

Kostas.Bolos@realgm.com