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Pistons news: Malice at The Palace, Stan Van Gundy giving back, Jeopardy and FanDueling

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The Detroit Pistons host the Phoenix Suns Wednesday night at The Palace, 10 years after the infamous "Malice at The Palace." Here is an afternoon Morning Shootaround.

By Packey
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Raj Mehta-USA TODAY Sports

Get some layup drills in for Wednesday night's game against the Phoenix Suns. If you take a hard foul by a crazy person, don't turn around and shove him in the neck. It can lead to crazier things.

That should've been the lesson 10 years ago to the day, the night when the "Malice at The Palace" occurred. I know Sean said let's never speak of it again, but I'm going to. It wasn't and still isn't really a yawn-inducing moment in NBA history for me. It's a permanent black eye in NBA history actually and the toughest crisis David Stern had to deal with in his plus-30 years as commissioner.

To this day, when I look back at the video, I still have a sense of shock that it happened, and, of all places, at The Palace. I remember vividly where I was when it happened -- on the left side of a cramped futon placed under a bunk in a closet-sized dorm room full of college dudes. My friend who was in charge of the TV remote was surfing through the channels and I asked him to check the Pistons game on ESPN. He turned to ESPN, saw the score, laughed to rub it in my face and was about to switch the channel when the conspired hard foul occurred and all hell broke loose. Our Friday night got a little more interesting, and embarrassing for me.

Funny story about the guy who threw the cup and how the police caught him, which is similar to a holy-cow moment my Mom had. My Mom was watching the local news one November night in 2007 or 2008 and he was being interviewed, as it was the anniversary night of the incident. He was talking about his involvement, his charges and how he was banned for life from Pistons games. Her jaw about dropped to the floor. My Mom realized it is the same guy she hired to re-do the front porch of our home.

Anyway, if you do want to revisit that night, Sean has great links in his post. If you read one of them, make it be Grantland's oral history.

On to more current matters:

-- While something ugly happened at The Palace 10 years ago, something beautiful went down there on Tuesday night, as the Pistons served food to 700 metro Detroit families.

Which led to this DBB tweet:

The Pistons did not blow the dinner late. Way to go, Pistons.

- Informative Q&A with Greg Monroe at MLIVE full of useless information:

MLive: If you guys had a team Jeopardy competition, who would win?

Monroe: Jeopardy? (Looks around the gym at teammates). Who would win? Maybe Kyle (Singler). Maybe Spencer (Dinwiddie). I'd put myself up there, too.

MLive: You know a lot of useless information?

Monroe: I wouldn't say useless. You think Jeopardy questions are useless?

- It's not Jeopardy, but you can win money playing FanDuel tonight. SB Nation is hosting a one-day fantasy basketball league Wednesday night for $2 and a chance to win $25. Here is the link. I will have a separate post later with my team and where we can talk about it exclusively. Speaking of exclusively, if you don't have an account yet, SB Nation readers who sign up for FanDuel will get their first deposit 100 percent matched up to $200. Sign up here. (FYI, FanDuel gave DBB some money to play with, but in the honest-to-all-cool words of Matthew McConaughey, I was playing FanDuel long before I was getting paid to play FanDuel.)   (Here's David Silver's stance on betting, by the way.)

- Speaking of making money, Josh Smith's 3-point shooting was compared to the unemployment rate ... in a positive way.

- More positive signs:

- SVG wrote "Fight or Flight? Together or apart?" on the Pistons' locker room white board after their loss to Orlando on Monday.

3 AROUND THE NBA:

- College basketball is in full swing, so let's start the Would the best team in college basketball beat the worst team in the NBA? debate. No.

- Dwight Howard being investigated for child abuse.

- The Boogie Board.

Now your thoughts and links.

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