When I first saw Metta World Peace throw that elbow to James Harden’s head, I thought he would draw a two-game suspension at a minimum. In the 24 hours since, I have been wondering whether I set the bar too low.
There was no word as of Monday afternoon from the league office on how long the former Ron Artest will be banned for his most egregious act since going into the stands and fighting fans during the infamous brawl at the Palace.
After that cataclysmic event, Artest was called into the office of commissioner David Stern to be read the riot act. As Dean Wermer would say, he’s on double-secret probation.
But would the league office give Artest such a harsh penalty that it would jeopardize the Lakers’ chances of getting out of the first round of the playoffs? Remember, the Lakers are good for business, and the NBA is a business — although that business did just fine last year when Los Angeles was swept by Dallas in the playoffs.
No doubt some of you have a small office pool going, and I will do you the favor of setting the over/under at 3 1/2 games. Wager amongst yourselves.
I say give him the same suspension that Wade got for giving Kobe a concussion and breaking his nose–and it was a much more intentional hit to Kobe. Oh, that’s right, Wade didn’t get any–must depend on how much the player is liked.
Ban for Life!!
It should be Harden’s missed games + 2.
I encourage people to go back and look at other violent hits that resulted in suspensions. For example, Derek Fisher leveling Luis Scola in the 2009 Playoffs (one game suspension), or Kevin Love stomping on Scola’s face last season (2 game suspension).
Was what MWP did really that much worse in terms of intent and delivery? Yes, the result was worse, but unless you assert MWP was aiming for Harden’s head (I don’t believe this to be true, but perhaps someone knows something I don’t), then we are engaging in the same double-standard where ordinary contact by big guys on small players gets called flagrant because the “smalls” go crashing to the floor, while “smalls” can whale on “bigs” and the lack of dramatic movement keeps such actions from being flagrant fouls (case in point, Russell Westbrook absolutely clubbed Andrew Bynum during a Bynum dunk in the game with the MWP elbow on Harden).
The flagrant 2/ejection was absolutely warranted. Some suspension time is also warranted. But I think a lot of people are overreacting because:
1) It’s the former Ron Artest
2) It was a national TV game with multi-angle HD super-slo-mo replays.
3) The play-by-play announcer went bat-s**t crazy about the incident.
Rugby?
C’mon man… I’ve had to defend myself harder in a mosh pit at Lollapalooza.
Lol.
5 – 10 prob ie. Season
I think David Stern is pissed about this. Primetime game, one of the best of the season, a double-overtime, massive comeback thriller…..and all anyone can talk about is Ron Artest elbowing James Harden in the side of the head. Put me down for 5 games (the final game of the season, and 4 playoff games).
Over !
I come from Australia and I can tell you that you would get more then 2 games for this in all forms of Rugby, and that’s a contact sport. If this wasn’t the NBA (i.e. college or highschool) you’d be looking at a long term suspension. That was a horrible elbow and has no place in the sport.
Yep. In the AFL that’d be high contact, intentional or reckless, impact: high or severe, and a 4 game+ suspension, high enough on the scale it would go to the tribunal instead of getting an automated sentence. It wouldn’t get the full Barry Hall king hit treatment but it would be close. 5+ here, but the chap who suggested that the suspension be until Harden returns to the court + 2 games is onto something.