Baller Shots

It’s been all over the blogosphere, but here’s some new footage of Ron Artest (aka Metta World Peace) brutally attacking James Harden last night during the Oklahoma City / Los Angeles Lakers game. There are various takes from all sides of the event. The attack is almost entirely unprovoked and unnecessary – Artest’s seriously powerful elbow to the head after James Harden bumps into him is about as effective as taking a blowtorch to a water balloon fight. See if for yourself. Should someone like this be allowed to play basketball?

That was written by noted Tumblr God Ned Hepburn for Death and Taxes. This is something of a revelation to me.

Not the video, of course. I’ve watched that shit 30 times over. I meant the last line, the one I emphasized.

Should someone like this be allowed to play basketball?

Ned’s lack of NBA knowledge aside, this is still one of the most baffling sentences I’ve ever read. Is this the question we should really be asking? Of course Metta will be suspended for a while, and maybe he should be. This will work its way through the SportsCenter cycle, be dissected by PTI, debated by Around the Horn, and then Ron will come back two weeks later with another notch on the crazy belt and with open arms waiting for him in LA.

But that question still bothers me. Mainly because I wonder if it’s really something people are wondering about. Does the casual fan really believe Metta World Peace should be banned from playing in the NBA? Sure, the Malice in the Palace might be one of, if not the, (unfortunately) most well-remembered event from MWP’s career, but just as huge has been his story of recovery. He got help, he has a therapist (and made sure we all knew it) and he’s become a different person. Sure he’s still a little funny in the head, by his own admission, but we’ve acknowledged that’s Ron being Ron.

So what’s this, then? Where do we categorize it in our memory banks regarding the baller formerly known as Ron Artest? I can’t speak for myself. I wouldn’t be surprised if MWP got a little hot under the collar and just went a little crazy and threw a ‘bow. I also wouldn’t be surprised if, as he said, he was just celebrating and hit James on accident. I mean, he didn’t even glance in James’ direction, but you also know when you’ve hit somebody in the head. You know it.

Let’s say for a minute that it was intentional, that he knew he was throwing his elbow, though perhaps he didn’t know it was Jimmy Harden. Where is this coming from? Why do this Metta?

Maybe… maybe he doesn’t know. After all, as I said before, this is a man who has sought psychiatric help (but so have more Americans than any of us are willing to admit). But MWP has been talking a lot in recent months about “bringing the old Ron Artest back.” Of course, we all understood he was talking about his general ability and his stats. But then there was the interesting Coach Kobe story, about his conversations with MWP.

I said ‘Metta do you know, first of all World Peace is a hot name, it’s a dope name.’ …. ‘Some people believe for us to achieve world peace the only way that can be achieved is through sheer will & through force of nature so sometimes you just have to go & conquer the territory & that’s when you establish world peace.’ He’s like ‘huh?’ I said ‘man you go out there and kick butt and then establish order.’

Now I’m not saying Kobe went and told Metta to elbow Harden in the back of the head, but this quote combined with the whole “bringing back Ron Artest” thing is quite interesting, and may lead to some answers about Metta’s mind at this point. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want Metta to sacrifice the MAN he is now for the PLAYER he once was.

And I hope you all feel the same way. Sure, old Ron might be crazier, a better player, and more blog-worthy. But this is a man’s life we’re talking about. We laugh at JaVale McGee the same way now, but let’s say, hypothetically (seriously this is just an example, I don’t think he ever will), JaVale one day gets really pissed and snaps a guy’s neck on the court. Or let’s say he shoots himself in the head one night. Everything we’ve ever seen from JaVale that we thought was so crazy or so funny suddenly becomes examined in a whole new light. And it will be examined, because we’ll need answers.

I’m really trying not to get on a high horse, and I’m 100% positive this tangent has gone far off topic, but we need to collectively understand that this is a chapter in the book of Metta World Peace’s life. That was the man he was in that moment. Today, he’s someone different. So are you. So am I. We need to understand one another better before we make any statements about intent or violence or anything regarding the mental processes behind what happened.

You may say this is the end of a chapter in Metta’s life, you might say it’s the beginning of another. But I can say for sure that I am looking forward to the next one with optimism for Mr. World Peace.