SUMMARY
- Stephen Jackson, Marquis Daniels, and another player named Jimmie Hunter made a terrible decision by roaming the streets of Indianapolis following training camp.
- It all started when they got into an argument with a couple of patrons at the club.
The Indiana Pacers were a group of tough players during the early 2000s. They were arguably one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference for many reasons and possibly the scariest of them all at the time. The Pacers have an awkward history of accommodating hot-headed individuals who often got into heated battles even during games. But this one incident almost had one player potentially killed had it gone any further.
In 2006, the Pacers had players like Stephen Jackson and Jamaal Tinsley, Marquis Daniels, and even Metta Sandiford-Artest on its roster. It was a fairly new season coming up and Artest was not on the roster anymore. However, Jackson was the next biggest thing on the team then. Before the 2006-07 season, Jackson, Marquis, and another player named Jimmie Hunter made a terrible decision by roaming the streets of Indianapolis following training camp. Little did they know, that night would almost end up with one of the players dead.
The three of them were partying all night at Club Rio. It all started when they got into an argument with a couple of patrons. Local authorities claimed that the Pacers players left the club while the patrons followed them and things became physical. Jackson was assaulted by one of the patrons and struck by their car. Following the altercation, Jackson fired five rounds from a 9mm pistol.
Were the Indiana Pacers players arrested?
At the time, Rick Carlisle was the head coach of the Pacers and he was starting to worry about the things that were happening with the team. Jackson, who was 28 years old at the time, barely missed being severely injured according to Carlisle. He stated that Jackson was very lucky to have only walked away from a couple of scrapes and bruises. Jackson required stitches to close wounds on his face and lip as well. This happened just before the Pacers’ opening game against the New Jersey Nets.
Local authorities were able to review footage from a CCTV camera in the area and Jackson was struck by a car. They claimed that the player had at least fired his pistol once during the incident. All individuals from the Pacers team were armed as well. Luckily, all three of them were legally carrying weapons with permits. Jackson had allegedly fired shots out of self-defense.
However, the police did find a small amount of Marijuana in the car that the Pacers players were in. They claimed that it was found in the passenger’s side of the car where Tinsley was. But the players weren’t charged for it as the police were not able to determine whom it belonged to. The players possibly had to go through drug testing as the usage of Marijuana was prohibited by the NBA. No arrests were made, however.