Metta World Peace elbow to Harden

[sp6r=underrated]

I don't believe that he is a thug or anything.

Thug is a word with heavy racial undertones so I feel uncomfortable using it. I will say Artest has established many times that he is a very violent and stupid individual who is quite comfortable attacking people. He has a shocking capacity for interpersonal violence. This is a man who has started a riot. This is a man who has blatantly attacked other players at the end of games in which he made no attempt to make a basketball play. This is a man who throws vicious elbows at peoples heads. He has never shown any indication that he understands intellectually what he has done. He is in short a violent individual. He is a stupid person.

[ibraheim718]

I just gave you an example where Ron got the same punishment as Bell for clotheslining a player. They both got one game. I just think fans are much more "omg it's Ron Artest" than the league will be.

No way... It's because the elbow was vicious. And if it would've happened in the playground RonRon would've definitely caught a bad one later that night.

[Nuntius]

I agree that it's going too far. And it probably wouldn't be fair either.

But what about the next player who will be standing close to Artest when he gets pumped up or angry? Will he be lucky?

Ron's been looking like he's going to lose it for a while now... Here is his little episode against the Knicks last year... Stern and Stu watch this stuff... They chart his stuff like any normal employer does.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcQSJON5ivA[/youtube]

Agreed.

On an irrelevant note:

Good move by Shawne Williams there.

[durden_tyler]

Why to Harden? Why not to Westbrook?

/kidding.

[HotRocks34]

I think MWP will be suspended a minimum of 10 games -- including the playoffs -- but probably more like at least 15, to try to make sure he can't be much of a factor in a potential second-round OKC-LAL match-up.

There are a number of reasons I feel this way, which many have touched on earlier and that I will elaborate on in another post.

[Father Time]

Metta World Peace's lust for violence and human suffering is rivaled only by the world's worst dictators.

[MastaStrategist]

I just gave you an example where Ron got the same punishment as Bell for clotheslining a player. They both got one game. I just think fans are much more "omg it's Ron Artest" than the league will be.

No way... It's because the elbow was vicious. And if it would've happened in the playground RonRon would've definitely caught a bad one later that night.

And Ron would've repped Queensbridge right

[kobeaki]

How can you look at he replay and say there wasnt some intent there. No one does the king kong celebration swinging their elbows like that. Metta felt the contact and tried to clear him out with the elbow but unfortunately it was the head and not somewhere lower.

artest does, all the time ...the reat of you laker haters need to grow up....

[Nuntius]

I don't believe that he is a thug or anything.

Thug is a word with heavy racial undertones so I feel uncomfortable using it.

I didn't know that it had racial undertones. Thanks for the information, though.

I will say Artest has established many times that he is a very violent and stupid individual who is quite comfortable attacking people. He has a shocking capacity for interpersonal violence. This is a man who has started a riot. This is a man who has blatantly attacked other players at the end of games in which he made no attempt to make a basketball play. This is a man who throws vicious elbows at peoples heads. He has never shown any indication that he understands intellectually what he has done. He is in short a violent individual. He is a stupid person.

He has done all that and he is indeed a violent individual. I don't know or care if he is a stupid person. But I care a lot about the part I underlined. That's the main problem with Artest. He does not understand his actions.

And this makes him dangerous. It's simple as this. Ron Artest does not have a solid grasp with reality. Is the league willing to take the risk?

I honestly don't believe that he would act any different if that was Kobe bumping him.

[wallflower]

Given Harden's known history of flopping, initiating contact, and goading I think the league would have to be forced to ignores today's incidence. For the integrity of the game Stern has to set a precedent this type of gaming for the refs must be stopped.

On another note Artest maybe a stupid individual but how dumb is it rub up on a guy like that? Am not sure Harden knew what he was doing, but he knows Artest. Like if a kid gets stung by a bee gee thats sucks, but if a kid sticks his hand in a hornets nest its like, well sorry youre hurt but are you stupid?

[Nuntius]

Metta World Peace's lust for violence and human suffering is rivaled only by the world's worst dictators.

I know that you're trolling but let me answer anyway.

Ron does not have any lust for violence or human suffering. He is just mentally unstable.

[ibraheim718]

How many games does he get?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=so3TR0bcx9k[/youtube]

Watching it again... Ron is cooked. We won't be seeing him for the rest of the year.

[Teen Girl Squad]

I think it should be a 5 game suspension but will likely be 10. People are out for blood because it was Artest (who really hasn't been super dirty since the melee) and the evil Lakers doing it against everyone's second favorite team (only below their own). If this was Josh Smith against Caron Butler this topic would barely exist.

[Father Time]

Metta World Peace's lust for violence and human suffering is rivaled only by the world's worst dictators.

I know that you're trolling but let me answer anyway.

Ron does not have any lust for violence or human suffering. He is just mentally unstable.

Exactly, yet people are making him out like he's some heinous, evil creature for acting impulsively. I doubt he had a thought in his head when he swung that elbow... Not excusing him for it, it was terrible and suspension worthy. But I don't think it makes him a terrible person at his core either. He obviously feels bad about it anyway, just like he felt bad about the Detroit incident.

[doctorfunk]

it should be 1-2 games MAX

first of all - it was not a clean hit,- nobody would have said that it's should be playoffs etc; if Harden wouldn't fall to the ground and tbh it didn't look like knock out punch i think he just added to the drama. Either way it should be 2games max, ye it was elbow but elbows happen in basketball all the time. Those intentional elbows never warranted a long suspension and they shouldn't in this case either.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gg4t0eNiuPM[/youtube]

like in here; it would look more dramatic if Caspi fell to the ground but he didn't, btw amazing sequence by Bargnani- defense, block and a rare rebound(!) Difference was artest was without ball and likely aimed for his head so it should be like 1 game suspension.

[SVictor]

The only thing pissing me off is every time something happens with the Lakers, fans of other teams act like it's the most vile thing to ever happen. I grew up watching the NBA from the late 70's on to now, and today what happen doesn't come close to the things I saw as a kid.

But at the same time there have been several Laker fans not praising what Metta did, and it's no reason to say he didn't intend to do it or he did intend to do it, because no one here is qualified enough to psycho analyze Metta. We don't know what the hell he was thinking coming out of that bucket he scored. The only thing we know is that he was fired up as hell, guys here killing Metta but why the f**k did Harden even put himself in front of a man known to explode ?

See no one can answer this, all I keep seeing is...." he was getting ready for the inbound pass", that bull sh*t. Because not one Thunder player was even standing out of bounds yet, so that's just some asinine thinking. But this thread has been over blown and it's never going to be a balance to agree on what played out.

Review the clip again. One of the bigs, Ibaka or Perkins is already under the board with the ball in his hands.

It's been overblown due to the game it is, two contenders with the seeds not locked yet, the race for the scoring title, etc. Usual stuff for the Lakers.

On the intentionality matter, he is well aware Harden is there. IMO it is clearly intentional. The rage from scoring the basket is no excuse, he should never do that.

That being said, it's not THAT big of a deal. Fine, 5 games suspension would do for a regular player, but we are dealing with Ron Artest here. Recidivism makes this 5 times worse.

[Nuntius]

People are out for blood because it was Artest (who really hasn't been super dirty since the melee) and the evil Lakers doing it against everyone's second favorite team (only below their own). If this was Josh Smith against Caron Butler this topic would barely exist.

Personally, I'm "out for blood" because it was Ron Artest. If it was any other Lakers player then I wouldn't hold the opinion I currently hold.

[justinandimcool]

Exactly, yet people are making him out like he's some heinous, evil creature for acting impulsively. I doubt he had a thought in his head when he swung that elbow... Not excusing him for it, it was terrible and suspension worthy. But I don't think it makes him a terrible person at his core either. He obviously feels bad about it anyway, just like he felt bad about the Detroit incident.

No smart individual would conclude he's a terrible person. But he's unstable, impulsive unintelligent, has a lack of self awareness and is flat out dangerous to be on the court with. There are aggressive, rigid, flat out dirty players that wouldn't resort to his antics.

He's a man that's admittedly had mental health problems. These people are ticking time bombs- they have good days, yes. Even years of good behavior. IMO a long suspension wouldn't do anything to prevent another incident from happening, but a short suspension (< 10 games) would indirectly reinforce it. And that would be utterly asinine.

And to the homer who says 2 games max:
Those kinds of elbows don't happen in basketball all the time. It wasn't a clean hit but it caused a concussion? Right. You deserve to be elbowed in the back of the head by a giant 240 pound man.

[Nuntius]

I know that you're trolling but let me answer anyway.

Ron does not have any lust for violence or human suffering. He is just mentally unstable.

Exactly, yet people are making him out like he's some heinous, evil creature for acting impulsively. I doubt he had a thought in his head when he swung that elbow... Not excusing him for it, it was terrible and suspension worthy. But I don't think it makes him a terrible person at his core either. He obviously feels bad about it anyway, just like he felt bad about the Detroit incident.

However, you have to understand that this very reason is why the league should consider him to ban him from the league.

You cannot risk putting a mentally unstable person in a competitive environment that is likely to tick him off. You just don't. He is a ticking bomb. You are risking an outburst.

[ibraheim718]

I seriously don't understand how or why you would try and rationalize or justify what Artest did tonight. I'm dumbfounded.