Metta World Peace elbow to Harden

[CROSS+]

Suspend him for the playoffs and make it clear to him off the record, that if such thing happens once again, he will be banned from the league.

Ron needs help, because he is just someone who cannot control his emotions. He is in some me-against-the-world mindset that he can control most of the time, but when he is incapable of doing so in the heat of the moment, stuff like this or the detroit brawl happens.

Having a coach like Phil Jackson probably really helped him monitor his emotions, but with Jackson gone and some guy like Mike Brown who is more of a geek than leader, something like this was bound to happen.

What's much more important than handing out harsh punishment is to make clear that if he doesn't get help to deal with his psychological issues, he is not mentally fit to participate in NBA games.

[SpinninHouse]

Artest is done for the rest of the year (playoffs and post season). Wouldn't be surprised if he got suspended 15 games. Or maybe even 20. It was an extremely violent play. Harden is lucky he's not a vegtable.

[carbine23]

ouch lol

[rayofsunshine]

that'll teach 'em.

[Hodges4Three]

Artest must be a huge Jon Jones fan

[Nate505]

Shaq dunked and his natural motion of arm coming back down happened to hit him. He did not wind his arm back all the way and follow through with full force AFTER coming in contact with him and knowing he was there.

Agreed. I remember watching that game and being pretty surprised he got thrown out.

[rayofsunshine]

Artest must be a huge Jon Jones fan

bball players must be sissy's. That guy didn't flinch.

[Hodges4Three]

Artest must be a huge Jon Jones fan

bball players must be sissy's. That guy didn't flinch.

How bout this one LOL

[og15]

Artest is done for the rest of the year (playoffs and post season). Wouldn't be surprised if he got suspended 15 games. Or maybe even 20. It was an extremely violent play. Harden is lucky he's not a vegtable.

You took it a little too far there

[ADoaN17]

Artest must be a huge Jon Jones fan

bball players must be sissy's. That guy didn't flinch.

Ron must have watched Jon dominate with those elbows last night.

[Buckeyevstworld]

The "ban him from the NBA" people seem overly sensitive. That's the internet for you.

I would say that's true if it were someone other than Artest. Artest has a long history of this BS and I personally have had enough of it. Ban his ass and make the Lakers pay his salary anyway.

That's just stupid. Oh noes lets ban him for sh*t that happened 8 years ago.

[freshtrinity46]

Nice roll on the floor by Harden too, but that couldn't have been unintentional. I first thought it was possible because he was chest pounding, but look at his right arm, after the pound, it doesn't extend that way, while his left arm does.

Wow, everyone's a tough guy on the couch. Some built pro athlete's elbow/arm swung at that area and from that distance... The idiotic 'flop police' are getting more annoying than flops themselves.



And no doubt it was intentional. No remorse or surprise that you just made contact with someone else's neck. Not to mention it's part of the job description to sense people around you and have peripheral vision.

[og15]

Artest must be a huge Jon Jones fan

bball players must be sissy's. That guy didn't flinch.

That's kind of the whole point of being trained to take and deliver hits

[Doctor MJ]

How many games does he get?

Laker fan here. If I'm Stern I wait to see the medical report. The hit looked extremely hard, but I'll want confirmation.

If Harden is seriously injured (fractured skull, extended absence with concussions), I kick Artest out of the league for forever. Even if it's less than that, I seriously consider the same punishment.

Why? Because at this point you simply cannot play against Artest and feel safe. Given that he's already been more suspended than any player I can ever remember for his fits of violence, and the fact that this happened instantly while Artest was celebrating, how can anyone feel confident that Artest is operating with the necessary impulse control?

I understand that this was something that Artest did without thinking - without malice aforethought - but we're not talking about prison terms here. We're talking about putting other players in harm's way going forward when there's no reason to think Artest will ever have better control than this. Just from a liability stand point, why would the NBA want to be in the Ron Artest business now?

[pohani komarac]

lifetime ban

[rayofsunshine]

you can truly see the difference in fans that have only seen david stern rule the nba.

[Mobat]

it was unintentional

[[GR]]

McHale, Oakley, and Lambeer all would be banned from the league if guys here had their way

[SVictor]

I just saw the replay and for people to be screaming that it was Intentional has to be kidding me. I'm not a Lakers fan idc for that team at all but to say that it was 100% intentional when players always do this type of stuff to get hyped is crazy imo. James Harden was just at the wrong place at the wrong time. Remember when Vince Carter dunked over the 7 footer? He got hyped turned around and swung his fist while Kevin Garnett was probably inches away from getting clocked in the face.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M54H307qhy4[/youtube]

BS.

[Buckeyevstworld]

you can truly see the difference in fans that have only seen david stern rule the nba.

It's not even that. People just get outraged over everything these days.