Metta World Peace was suspended seven games by the NBA for his elbow to the head of James Harden last Sunday. The player formerly known as Ron Artest apologized after the game and said the elbow was “unintentional.” Commissioner David Stern termed it “reckless,” and Metta even said it was “brutal.”
But that doesn’t mean he thinks the public beating he’s taking for the concussion-inducing action is warranted. World Peace actually defended himself against some of the criticism he’s been receiving by sending a few tweets from his account on Wednesday.
Can magic johnson,jon barry and steven A compare my accidental elbow to the Luis scola face step and the Blake griff take down..?
— Metta WorldPeace (@MettaWorldPeace) April 26, 2012
Shaq ,How can u comment on elbows.. What about the punch you threw at brad miller. And the elbows at dikembe and the prizbilla concussion?
— Metta WorldPeace (@MettaWorldPeace) April 26, 2012
Sports media , I understand yal articles and respect it.. But the players and players that played in the 80’s judging me.More to come later.
— Metta WorldPeace (@MettaWorldPeace) April 26, 2012
Metta later deleted the tweets, probably after he was told it doesn’t send the best public message. Here he is supposed to be apologizing for his actions, and he’s sitting there complaining about the unfair treatment from the media. He’s not going to get any sympathy from me.
World Peace threw a reckless elbow that concussed Harden. He’s lucky it didn’t do more damage to the Thunder guard. And just because other players have done awful things in the past doesn’t lessen the significance of what World Peace did. Plus, Metta’s history of controversial plays affects the public’s perception of him. That’s something he created and this is one of the repercussions.
Photo Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-US PRESSWIRE
