“I really love to fight, that’s the crazy thing,” Shaquille O’Neal once admitted. “But I always say to myself, ‘I don’t want my mom sitting on the couch seeing me in a bar fight.” Despite his resolve to avoid on-court altercations, the Lakers legend didn’t always succeed in keeping his temper in check. One such moment came in 2002, costing Shaq $15,000 and a three-game suspension. Years later, Metta World Peace reflected on this incident as he recounted his own brushes with on-court conflict.

“I jumped on Shaq’s back when he swung at Brad Miller. Shaq is 320 pounds, so why would I be afraid of Ben Wallace?” Metta shared while discussing the infamous ‘Malice at the Palace’ on Byron Scott’s podcast. Recalling the 2002 altercation between the Bulls and Lakers, Metta described how it all unfolded during a heated fourth quarter.

At the time, Shaq was growing visibly frustrated with persistent fouls from Brad Miller and Charles Oakley, part of a tactic known as “Hack-a-Shaq,” where players deliberately fouled him to disrupt his rhythm. Tensions boiled over when the 4x NBA Champion finally snapped, throwing a ferocious roundhouse punch at Miller, who had his back turned. In an unexpected turn, Metta—then a young player for the Bulls—stepped in to defend his teammate. He instinctively jumped on O’Neal’s back to de-escalate the situation. “It wasn’t about being scared or anything. It’s just what you do at the moment,” Metta explained.

“I should be afraid of Shaq, right? Shaq hit you with one punch. I don’t care how tough you are mentally; you’re going down,” Metta added via the Fast Break podcast. That’s why when in 2004, Artest faced Wallace, he wasn’t afraid to hit back. During a game between the Indiana Pacers and the Detroit Pistons at the Palace of Auburn Hills in Michigan on Nov. 19, 2004, things got heated after a tough foul from Metta World Peace on Ben Wallace in the fourth quarter.

Wallace reacted by pushing the Pacers forward and things erupted from there. After a fan threw a drink at Metta, he charged into the crowd and a lengthy brawl ensued. He faced an 86-game suspension and lost nearly $5 million in salary. Two years after climbing back of Shaq to stop the fight, Metta got involved in one of his own.

Brad Miller and Shaquille O’Neal recall the battle

However, Metta is not the only one to recall previous battles. Both Miller and O’Neal shared their perspectives on that day. The 2x NBA All-Star, alongside his teammate Oakley, and Shaq received ejection orders from the referees. The Bulls won the game, 106-104, and Miller revealed he would have pursued legal action if the punch had landed. “Somehow I turn like this and literally Shaq’s big a– rainmaker, can’t hit nobody, we know, like a free-throw, just barely nicked the fu– out of my ear, and then by the time I turned—sh–, you got Metta (World-Peace), everyone was in there.”

Later Miller admitted, “No, I would’ve been sucking through a straw…He would’ve fu–ked me up,” via All the Smoke podcast. Interestingly, Shaquille O’Neal also revealed his true intentions of hitting from behind. “I didn’t wanna hit him on the back, but as soon as he turned to the side, I wanted to bust his eardrums up that’s all. I wanted him to hear f—— tweety birds for the rest of his life.”

Ultimately, Shaq lost his cool, which even Lakers former coach Phil Jackson agreed shouldn’t have happened. How do you feel about these intense on-court battle stories? Tell us in the comment section below!