James Harden suffered a concussion. He might miss playoff games as he now has to pass a battery of tests and evaluations before he can return.
http://newsok.com/okc-thunder-james-...a-city-thunder

You know Ron Artest aka Metta World Peace. He's the holder of the longest ever suspension of 73 games for going in to the stands in the Brawl at the Palace.

He's played in games where guys were stabbed in the heart with table legs
http://deadspin.com/5243915/ron-arte...pdate-for-real

He's probably done enough to remove reasonable doubt (that it's an accident) when he does something like this.

He's going to be suspended. How long will/should he be suspended for?

He's had some defenders but mostly has faced stern opposition, such as 2p2's Haralabos Voulgaris who tweeted after:

Haralabos Voulgaris ‏ @haralabob Reply Retweet Favorite · Open
If he isn't done for the year, the NBA is a disgrace. Can't have guys who are unstable playing the game.

yeah thats how they do it on the street

for someone with a clean rep, at least a ban until the end of this season

has to be more than that for a guy with MWP's history

edit: also, if Harden ends up with serious complications from this ala steve moore, ban artest at least until Harden is ready to resume his career.

I'd be shocked if he was suspended for the duration of this season.

Not saying that he shouldn't be, but I think it's unlikely

I mean, what's the defense? It's clearly 100% intentional

Some observations:

1. I think it's clear it wasn't an "accident". If you throw an elbow that hard to the dome of a guy on accident, your first instinct would be to turn and see if he's OK, not rage up the court looking for a fight.

2. The "intention" is unclear. It probably wasn't "on purpose", but that's actually more scary than if it was. I don't have much doubt Artest didn't premeditate an elbow to Harden like that, but it being his subconscious violent reaction to a not very violent gesture by Harden is more scary than if it were planned, as it points to some instability.

3. How Artest is handling himself afterwards (which has been how he should) shouldn't matter. Being reasonable after hours of calming down and facing possible league ending suspension means very little.

I disagree. I read all the stories about how it was intentional etc. all morning before actually seeing the clip for the first time. I went in fully expecting to see an intentional and viscious elbow and then I watched it and it didnt really look intentional at all.

His behavior after the elbow really makes it difficult to think he wasn't in full rage

in terms of malice/intent, it's not close to something like the premedidated kermit washington punch

it's way more crazy (and scarier because of it) tho

You could say this about a lot of elbows, hard intentional fouls, hard hits, and fights where someone gets punched in the face, etc. Any well placed hit can severely cripple/paralyze/kill somone.

fyp

Anyone have a clip of what Harden did that preceded this whole thing?

I would give him an indefinite suspension, and permit him to apply for reinstatement after 2 years. Artest is simply unable to control himself at the moment, and by no means should someone like that be allowed in society, let alone onto an NBA court.

I'm just disappointed this happened at home, we have had the Malice at the Palace II if this was a road game

pretty sure all he did was the little bump u see in the video right before the jackie chan elbow

Did not really look intentional at all. Harden should not be walking in front of people after they go in for a layup. Even if he did not get elbowed he would have been run over. Get out of the way little man World Peace is a big man.

Given his history I think, in addition to fines/suspension, he should be evaluated by a Psychologist/mental professional and have to be given clearance in order to play again.

Harden did the standard "get in the guys face" after Hollywooding on the dunk

cmon son

show me an instance of mwp celebrating a dunk by throwing his elbow around at face height

Is this close to warranting an assault charge? Not an expert....but it wouldn't be totally unreasonable imo.

Yeah especially unexpected elbows to the back of the head/neck. In my mind it is considerably worse than a face to face punch

that elbow'll teach him

he's been very open to the fact that he goes to see a psychiatrist regularly. Why would any mental health diagnosis be reason to ban him from playing? That is clear discrimination and it is definitely illegal to discriminate on the basis of mental health in the United States.

the angle of the blow makes the intent pretty clear imo

What? Why does that matter at all? It's not MWP's fault that harden is a little dude and got toppled by an elbow clear through. Harden got in the way, MWP wanted to do the king kong thing and Harden stepped up to him when he should have moved out of the way.