Metta World Peace retroactively given flagrant foul, near suspension

[ILLsmak]

lol he busted him w/ an elbow. Artest is not smart but he's good at popping people.

Not a big fan of elbows. That's why when you look at a dude like Rodman who was all over people and would get in their face, you can respect him because he never tried to cheap shot someone or, at least, didn't do it like some guys do.

Bein all over people, slamming into them with your body... even forearm to the chest... that's okay, but elbowing someone in the face is wack shit.

-Smak

[maybeshewill13]

Good flagrant. Metta is a dog.

[Rake2204]

It'd help to see another angle. But as with some of the other hits I've seen Artest deliver, there always seems to be a hint of "accidental" intent. As a ball player, I wasn't big on using malicious elbows, but I did pull off some moves where I tried to make it look accidental when I actually really knew what I was doing. That way there'd always be people that'd say, "C'mon, no way he meant to do that, way too random and accidental." When really, I knew exactly what I was doing. I get that feeling with Artest on a lot of these supposedly accidental incidents.

[AirTupac]

Artest in his own words:

He went back to talking about Monday's loss in Denver, and elbowing Faried.

"The best offensive rebounder in the league is coming full speed… down your back. That impact is not soft. It hurts me too," World Peace said. "This guy's coming 100 miles an hour down my back. What am I supposed to do? Skinny up?" World Peace scrunched his shoulder together and looked like a pencil.

Then he added, "You wasn't taught to go like this." He raised his arms straight in the air.

"Looks like a cheerleader."

[Rake2204]

Originally Posted by AirTupac

Lol some people have never played basketball based on some replies.


Artest in his own words:

I think a player is able to effectively get big and wide without having elbows high enough in the air to clock someone of equal or greater height in the forehead. I do not believe being upright or having one's arms high enough to hit that portion of someone's body (the face) would be declared technically proficient.

But as I mentioned previously, I think I would benefit from seeing another angle. I like to think I'd be skeptical of an elbow like that regardless of who threw it, but I also have to say, knowing Artest's history, it's oftentimes tough to give him the benefit of the doubt. And he seems to have a history of making dangerous plays then speaking as if it was all one big misunderstanding (he was just celebrating, he was just getting big, etc.).

Edit: Oh man, after giving that clip another couple of looks, I can't honestly see any way that play was not intentional. He sees Faried coming, he raises both arms in acceptable box out stance, the right arm remains in box out stance, then the left one fires wildly at Faried's face. It'd be quite tough for me to believe that was not intentional. There wasn't even a real attempt to use one's body to move Faried out (which is proper boxout technique). He just scoots backward and uses the left up-swinging elbow to the face as his boxout. I do not believe that play was clean or a byproduct of normal boxing out at all.