Monday, April 23, 2012

Party Foul: Metta World Peace


Violation: Metta World Peace's malicious elbow to the head of James Harden during the Los Angeles Lakers and Oklahoma City Thunder game at the Staples Center on Sunday, April 22, 2012.

Explanation: Everybody has seen the clip by now (link to incident). The question now is how many games will he be suspended? How hard will David Stern and league officials come down on him? Currently, the Los Angeles Lakers have one game left in the regular season and they obviously hope to make a deep run in the post season as well. Preliminary estimates from reporters, columnists, and other NBA players range anywhere from two games to ten games. In my opinion, with his long history of mishaps it should be much much longer. This is the same guy that was suspended for destroying camera equipment at Madison Square Garden in 2003 (3 games), for initiating a confrontation with Pat Riley (4 games), for the "Malice at the Palace" in 2004 (86 games), for elbowing Manu Ginobili in the head during the 2006 NBA Playoffs (1 game), for his multitudes of legal issues in 2007 (7 games), for clotheslining Juan Jose Barea during the 2011 NBA Playoffs (1 game), and now this. There's been many stories written about the improvements he's made in his behavior, which culminated with the J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship award he won during the 2010-2011 season. But give me a break and cut the bullsh*t.

After the game on Sunday, he tweeted, "I just watched the replay again..... Oooo.. My celebration of the dunk was really too much... Didn't even see James ..... Omg... Looks bad."

Wait, seriously? The bottom line is the guy is mentally unstable, he targets the head, and he shows no remorse for his actions. Someone can get seriously hurt with him around. With a name like Metta World Peace and the fact that this occurred on Earth Day, the offense is downright shameful.

Punishment: Personally, I want him to be completely banned from the NBA altogether. I know that won't happen but could you imagine having these incidences with your employer or at your place of employment? It would warrant immediate termination. No questions asked. Realistically, I would like to see him get suspended for the remainder of the 2011/2012 season, playoffs included. If this had occurred in the "real world," he would be criminally charged with assault and/or battery.

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5 comments:

He needs to change his name...again. That elbow was more vicious than Jon Jones's elbow on Saturday.

"The bottom line is the guy is mentally unstable..."

This.

Metta World Peace is the shit. My man Skip Bayless brought up a great point on First Take today. He said that James Harden is not blameless. He purposely walked into Metta to try to break up his celebration; smart and veteran move by Harden with an obvious backfire.

The NBA should be given a party foul for taking so long to rule on this classless, malicious, and dumbfounded act by Metta World Peace.

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