When Ron Artest changed his name to Metta World Peace he was suppose to promote better living, instead the Los Angeles Lakers play was ejected from Sunday’s game against the Oklahoma City Thunder after receiving a flagrant foul 2 for elbowing James Harden in the head.
World Peace brought the Lakers to within one after throwing down a dunk with 1:39 remaining in the second quarter and as he made his way back down the court he began beating his chest like a neanderthal before hitting Harden in the head with his elbo as Harden stood behind him.
The blow was strong enough to throw Harden to the floor and draw the flagrant foul 2.
Lakers and Thunder players delayed gameplay for several minutes as they argued the call and the flagrant 2 foul call was only made after a video monitor review was performed at center court.
After the game Metta World Peace said:
“During that play I just dunked on (Kevin) Durantand (Serge) Ibaka and I got really emotional and excited and it was unfortunate that James had to get hit with an unintentional elbow. I hope he’s OK. The Thunder, they’re playing for a championship this year, so I hope that he’s OK and I apologize to the Thunder and to James Harden.
You know, it was such a great game and it was unfortunate so much emotion was going on at that time … That’s it for today.”
Harden made his way to the locker room for evaluation following the foul and only briefly returned to the Oklahoma City bench in the second half.
The foul follows a long history of bad behavior from Ron Artest however he has been mostly well behaved since changing his name to Metta World Peace.
After World Peace was ejected the Lakers fell apart, scoring only 14 points in the next 14 minutes.
