Just wanted to hear people’s opinions on the incident that happened in the Lakers vs Thunder game last night. The game itself was a classic double over-time thriller in which Kobe showed once again that as long as he is capable of running the Lakers will never go away. He forced Russell Westbrook into a 3-22 shooting night while himself had a 9 point surge in the 4th and then 6 more in the 2nd OT to make sure his team goes home a winner. He had 26 points in total.
But all of this was overshadowed by what Meta World Peace (Ron Artest) did with a minute left in the first half. After driving in for a strong finish over Durant and Ibaka, Meta started to trump his chest and threw a vicious elbow right behind James Hardens ear. Harden went down on the floor and left the game with what appears to be a concussion. He will now have to go through an extensive list of tests and workouts before he can get back on the floor again. With the NBA’s new concussion rules in effect it could be some time into the playoffs when the talented Harden could return to the Thunder lineup.
I watched the replay so many times and I regretfully have to say that Artest must have felt that someone was by his side. Was the momentum and emotions he has at that moment too much for him to stop his elbow in time or was it intentional? The reality is that we will never know the answer for sure so we could only speculate. A suspension will definitely follow and it could not have come at a worse time for the Lakers. Meta has been playing exceptionally well in April and they could use him in the playoffs. The league will probably announce the punishment it will implement for the incident but me personally I hope it is not too drastic as we have to realize these are huge men who are competitive and emotional…this doesn’t justify violence but I will say again we cannot know for sure what was going through his head at the time so it could have been just an unfortunate accident.