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I believe the rest of this season which could mean the end of his career. Not sure how many years he has left in his contract, but the NBA could do a special case for the Lakers to buy him out at minimum $ or something. Here is why i think they might suspend him indefinitely.
1). Previous reputation--remember last year the hit/swat against Barea in the face as the most recent one...keep in mind all his career suspensions were due to violence and not like he received his 16th technical and gets a game suspension like Howard has been in several times. 2). Saying it was an accident when it was clearly intentional, thus in denial and outright lying. Had he admitted that he was clearly wrong on this, he might have gotten only a few games or at least lighter sentence. 3). Did you see the part when the Thunder players especially Ibaka were saying something to him and he backed away saying if i can read lips correctly..."you want some of this" with his fighting stance and fist clamp ready to throw some blows...this clearly shows aggression and not a man of 'peace' ...what he should've done was raise his arms and said it was an accident eventhough we clearly know it wasn't, but at least Stern could see that he felt some remorse during that part.
I could be wrong since Stern is unpredictable, but any punishment less than the 1st round of the playoffs would be too lenient. As far the incident itself, just look at how Artest knew someone was next to him by Harden's contact with the body. He knew someone was there and still swung his elbows high above the shoulder. The only time an NBA player swings an elbow this high above the shoulders in this particular manner is after getting a rebound to prevent others from swatting away after a player gets the rebound. Bottom line is that he knew someone was standing right next to him, but threw the elbow anyway with a full cocked wind up blow.
Nope.. Sixer fan from so long ago that it really doesn't matter...
Artest threw and elbow, not a fist.. he wasn't even looking at the other player.. just throwing an elbow.. I get that you can't throw elbows up high and Artest has a history.. so throw him out of the league.. i certainly don't care but your only doing the Lakers a favor by suspending him through the PLAYOFFs.
It doesn't look like he saw who it was unless he just saw the blue out of the corner out of his eye, but I doubt he just threw an unprovoked elbow with malice right after scoring.
You may notice that I am specifically predicting what I think Stern will do, not neccessarily what I would do. I think the nature of the hit and the damage (a concussion is a big deal) will play a role along with Artests past transgressions.
Wow, I was shocked when I sorted the list by name and then by year. Stern hasn't had to suspend anybody for fighting much after the 2006 crackdown. (Melo got 15 games for that and so forth).
Stern sends messages. He hasn't had to deal with crap like this in a while.
It doesn't look like he saw who it was unless he just saw the blue out of the corner out of his eye, but I doubt he just threw an unprovoked elbow with malice right after scoring.
So why would he throw an elbow PERIOD? Especially since he actually brushed against Harden before swinging it. Whether it was provoked or otherwise it was unwarranted, and the guy knew that someone else with in the vicinity, regardless of whether he saw them or not.
So why would he throw an elbow PERIOD? Especially since he actually brushed against Harden before swinging it. Whether it was provoked or otherwise it was unwarranted, and the guy knew that someone else with in the vicinity, regardless of whether he saw them or not.
Exactly. When someone is close to you and actually makes contact with your body, then you definitely know someone is there. Why would you then swing your elbow much less that high and deliver it like that. If Harden hadn't made contact, then i would give Ron some leeway, but he clearly knows someone is standing next to him. I'm not a lawyer, but i think they would reason on intent.
I think what makes this worse is that it wasn't even during an actual play, but after. At least if you are rebounding and "clearing out" with your elbows there is some kind of reasoning for it in the first place. Not in this case though. The guy threw a full powered elbow up high on someone he couldn't have even gotten a good look at while running up the court. What could possibly be said to justify that.
I think what makes this worse is that it wasn't even during an actual play, but after. At least if you are rebounding and "clearing out" with your elbows there is some kind of reasoning for it in the first place. Not in this case though. The guy threw a full powered elbow up high on someone he couldn't have even gotten a good look at while running up the court. What could possibly be said to justify that.
During my basketball playing days, I was taught to hold up my elbows after a rebound, but not to swing. If the guy's face then meets with my elbow because he's lounging for the ball, that's on him.
But in this scenario, this was a calculated, fully cocked swing intending to hit 'someone'. For that matter, since he wasn't looking at who he bumped into, it could have been Kobe Bryant of all people coming up to congratulate him or something to that effect. Hell, how did he know he hadn't knocked into a ref, for that matter? Did he care at that point? Clearly not.
Here is another thing that Stern will look at. After he swung his elbow and Harden falls down, Ron didn't even bother to look back to see who he hit. This truly shows recklessness. Stern is gonna look hard at this too. This could be the part that seals it for him. Also, i watched it again and after his dunk, he turns his body around, thus he had to know there were only Thunder players or at least seeing the color blue(jerseys), before he did his arm chest thump just before the elbow swing. I think he knows a Thunder guy was there. The look of Artest was somebody out for the kill when Ibaka said something to him. That was one scary look.
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...what he should've done was raise his arms and said it was an accident eventhough we clearly know it wasn't, but at least Stern could see that he felt some remorse during that part.
