Los Angeles Lakers Forward Metta World Peace, formally known as Ron Artest, had yet another controversial incident on the basketball court April 23, the latest of his notorious career. World Peace received a seven game suspension from the NBA, adding to his now 13:1 suspension to championship ratio.
Towards the end of the first half, Metta Not-So-Peaceful dunked the ball then threw an elbow at Oklahoma City’s James Harden, hitting Harden square in the temple and leaving him lying on the floor concussed. World Peace claimed the contact was unintentional and that he just meant to celebrate his dunk, but the last time somebody celebrated by winding up their elbow and swinging it across their body was, well, never.
While World Peace does have a history of problems on the court—or even right off of it, as in 2004 when he jumped into the crowd during a game and fought a fan, resulting in a record-setting 86-game suspension—the elbowing incident did come as a bit of a surprise.
World Two-Faced had seemed to have turned his life around; since changing his name in 2011, he’s been relatively incident-free and has become involved in the community. He’s the reigning winner of the NBA J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award, which recognizes a NBA player or coach for outstanding service and dedication to the community. He’s also a huge promoter of awareness of mental health, appearing before Congress in support of the Mental Health in Schools Act as well as raffling off his 2010 championship ring, raising more than $650,000 towards mental health awareness.
That being said, World Peace’s actions on Sunday were inexcusable and frankly hypocritical based on his own name. If the elbow had been unintentional, one would think he would’ve at least stopped and shown some remorse for hitting Harden. Instead, World Peace ran back down the court still beating his chest and was ready to “throw down” against one of Harden’s teammates who was coming to Harden’s defense. He finally apologized via Twitter after the game, still managing to misspell Harden’s name in the tweet showing he must have really been regretful.
Just one more disturbing episode for Metta’s saga—and to think I thought it would end with World Peace.
