Metta World Peace elbow to Harden

[rayofsunshine]

The sad part is....RON RON has been balling and this kind of thing hurts him and his team too.

[RRFB]

I don't think Artest meant for it to be that malicious, but he knew that elbow was making contact. And it's clear he wound up and put some strength behind it. It's not as bad as Bynum's elbow on Barea, but this is still definitely worthy of a suspension. Maybe not the entire first round, but as a fan of a team who might get matched up against the Lakers in the first round, I certainly wouldn't mind that.

[Buckeyevstworld]

8 years might seem like a long time, but from Stern's perspective, this just shows that if you keep having Artest around, you have to expect that stuff like this will keep happening, albeit relatively rarely. Maybe Artest retires without doing something like this again, but what motivates Stern to take the chance?

Oh God. He elbowed him in the head. You're making it sound like he beat him down like in Menace II Society.

[BKing10]

Realistically half season at most. It looked intentional, but he was caught up in the moment. I don't see a lifetime ban. There have been people who got into fist fights and only get suspended a game. Yes these fist fights involve shots to the head

fsit fight is a bit differnt. harden didn't get a chance to defend himself. with fist fights the participants obviously know what they're getting into.

Harden used his best defensive move. He took a dive.

[Black Feet]

Wow talk about overreacting, suspend him for the whole playoffs? kick him out of the league? seriously? I think a 1 game suspension is more than enough.

[thamadkant]

I don't mind Ron but that was crazy.. UFC banned those types of elbow strikes...

[Hodges4Three]

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

Back in the days when players used to fight basically every day, the league was in very bad shape. Publicly it was perceived as a league full of coke-snorting thugs.

When Stern took over he transformed the league by holding players accountable for their actions on-court, making the league much more appealing to a broader audience.

Would you want to get elbowed in the head while playing basketball?

If I was a 6'5 muscle bound athlete, I would dish it out and I would take it.

Let's just make a new sport maybe call it Footsketball. Or maybe NBMMA

[CROSS+]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27DBI_re_r8[/youtube]

Player was suspended for 8 games. A season consists of 34 games.

[NuggetSoup]

He should (and I think he will) be banned for the rest of the season + playoffs, possibly more. For those who question whether it was intentional, just look how he did his celebration with his right arm compared to the left. The left was cocked back and was much higher than the right, Artest and Harden made contact before the action but he continued anyway, and that he didn't look back when he connected squarely. It is completely different and completely intentional.

[Magz50]

That was some straight up dirty sh*t. Hope he's banned for the rest of the year.

[Pharmcat]

give him 2 games and a fine

[INKtastic]

how can anyone claim that intentional concussion causing elbows to the head are just physical plays that tough player should be able to take and dish right back out. Intentionally injuring another players brain never should be tolerated. That's not basketball now, that's not basketball in the 80s, that's just assault.

[Doctor MJ]

Anyone saying this was unintentional is either blind or just plain mentally challenged.

Right, let's distinguish:

Unintentional: He didn't know Harden was there.
Intentional: He did know Harden was there

Unpremeditated: He didn't think it through before he did it.
Premeditated: He did think it through before he did it.

This is clearly Intentional but UNpremeditated. Not being premeditated helps you in a court of law, but that's not where we are. If I'm Stern, it's actually scary that it wasn't premeditated because it means that there's literally no point in giving a temporary punishment: It won't change anything. So you can either give a temporary punishment to save face, remove Artest permanently, or do nothing. The unreasonableness of the first choice, and the unacceptability of the last choice make the permanent ban something I seriously consider.

I understand if that doesn't seem fair to Artest, but remember, Stern's not in the "fair" business. The question is what makes it worthwhile to him to stay in the Artest business knowing that the NBA will be held partially responsible for any damage Artest causes given that they've ALREADY seen him do so much even before this incident.

Feel bad for Artest, but making millions in the NBA is not a right, it's a privilege.

[sefant77]

So Harden finally found the ellbow he was searching all games long in the Mavs series last years?

[youtube]www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGzSNsPafY0[/youtube]

[JackFinn]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkjQNz1gt0g[/youtube]

How many more warning signs do we need?

[Mars]

If he hadn't changed his name to Metta World Peace last offseason he might of strangled Harden to death as the coup de grace.

[supermario]

If he didn't mean to do it he would've stopped to help him out. Perkins was a little pansy for not taking Artest out. All bark and no bite. He had the perfect opp. too. Even Westbrook ran after him it was a little puppy chasing a german shepard.

[ShamrockBHV]

give him 2 games and a fine

I think they should just allow him to continue to play against OKC.

[sonicFLAME6]

I doubt he gets anything more than 5 games. With the shortened season they also have to shorten the suspension.

[MAQ]

give him 2 games and a fine

I gotta agree here.

Maybe send a message and toss him for 2 playoff games as well. 250,000 dollar fine. Be done. I'm not seeing the entirety of the playoffs.