Metta World Peace tossed a vicious elbow at James Hardin over the weekend and now looks to miss at least the first round of the playoffs. The punishment is justified — watch the way MWP, the former Ron Artest, winds up before swinging at Harden — but the vilification of him goes too far.
While I can’t agree with Dave Zirin on this one that the former St. John’s star finds himself in the cross-hairs because the player he hit just happened to be the shorter Harden. That wind up makes it impossible not to read this as premeditated.
But he is correct in condemning the NBA’s double standards:
As upsetting as the endlessly repeated slow-mo elbow replay is, we should recognize several things. The breathless media coverage is not because of the injury to Harden. The commentary has already far outpaced that of similar cheap shots in the NBA. Kobe Bryant had his nose intentionally broken by Dwyane Wade during the NBA All-Star Game. Kevin Love stepped on Luis Scola’s face. Jason Smith and Russell Westbrook in recent weeks committed fouls that could have ended the careers of the NBA’s brightest lights, Blake Griffin and LeBron James. But those stories were one-day spectacles, no more and no less.
But Metta has his history, and with a history comes a narrative that allows the media to use past as prologue. In this case, the prologue unfolded eight seasons ago, at the “Malice in the Palace”, when Ron Artest brought a fistfight into the stands during a game in Auburn Hills, Michigan. For many fans, Metta came to embody the highly racialized symbol of the “NBA thug”. He received the longest suspension in NBA history (73 games), and the question of whether he would even be allowed to return was very real. There was a current of racism – some veiled, some not- in this whole spectacle, as the “thug” Artest was held up for public scorn and ridicule for starting a “riot.”
MWP, though, as Zirin points out, rehabilitated his image to a degree — he was one of the worst dancers ever on Dancing with the Stars, but he was entertaining — but his history has been difficult to get past.
Consider this piece by Jemele Hill on ESPN, which makes the case that
It would be much easier to forget Metta World Peace‘s turbulent past, if he didn’t so often provide present-day reminders.
Hill calls for a suspension of at least 10 days, rehashes the ugly brawl from seven years ago — no one ever raises this issue about Stephen Jackson (a great pickup by the Spurs, the commentariat says) or Jermaine O’Neal — but fails to offer even one incident from the intervening eight years to back up the “present-day reminders.”
The league was right to suspend Artest for seven games. The elbow was vicious and dangerous. But it also needs to prove that reputation matters less than action and that all players, whether they be MWP or Dwayne Wade, will face the same justice from the league office.
- Send me an e-mail.
- Read poetry at The Subterranean.
- Certainties and Uncertainties a chapbook by Hank Kalet, will be published in November by Finishing Line Press. It can be ordered here.
- Suburban Pastoral, a chapbook by Hank Kalet, available here.
Hank Kalet 