harden

so anybody else think okc was overplaying the extent of his injury in an effort to influence the penalty on artest?

 

Even if they were, did they do anything wrong?

 

no, i suppose not. the nba generally considers the outcome of such things when figuring out what kind of penalty to hand down. like if harden had been knocked out cold and spent the night in the hospital, i'm sure artest would have gotten more than 7 games. if he'd bounced right up and kept playing, i'm guessing it would have been fewer than 7. so playing up the injury would make be a good decision on their part. except that i suppose it might make people question more serious injuries...

by the way, i'm not suggesting harden flopped or anything or that artest's elbow wasn't not a big deal.

that said, harden is kind of a flopper and i think artest played right into it. artest was flailing away and harden purposefully put himself in artest's path. again, the elbow was way over the top and overtly wrong.

but the way it unfolded with harden coming back out in the 2nd half and the gm telling him to go back to the lockeroom, the coyness on the part of the thunder with whether he had a concusion or not, the timing of his apparent recovery (the day after the suspension is announced). all kinda points to some gamesmanship.

plus, there's not much else to talk about right now with the playoff positioning mostly complete....

 

No. If you need it shown to you in person, then feel free to let one of the folks on my hoops team come and elbow you upside the head.

We can time how long it takes you to get up.

Artest is a fucking punk.

 

whether or not artest is a punk has no bearing on the extent of the injury to harden. i don't think harden suffered a concussion and that he could have easily played the games he sat out. not saying such a blow could not have caused a concussion, just that in this case, i don't think it did.

just as you gauge the play on artest's history, you should consider harden's. he took a dive to draw a tech from tyson chandler in last years' playoffs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGzSNsPafY0

anyway, the bigger issue is probably that the nba assesses penalties based on outcome and not the act itself.

 

I didn't gauge the play on Artest's histroy. I simply called him a punk for doing it.

Nice try though.

We play tonight - feel free to come by and take that whack I offered.

Maybe you'll realize that Ron's reputation has nothing to do with it and the actual elbowing someone upside the head is the fucking problem.

 

Let me be even more blunt.

Did World Metta Peace elbow a mother fucker in the head or not?

It's a simple yes or no question.

 

i meant gauge the penalty of the play.

as much as i appreciate the offer, i don't understand what that light would be shed on the subject.

artest's reputation is absolutely part of the penalty consideration.

 

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yes he did. and i said in my second post that i wasn't trying to imply that it was not a big deal.

this thread was about whether or not okc was trying to influence the penalty by playing up the consequences of the play.