Los Angeles Lakers forward Metta World Peace faced the media on Wednesday for the first time since the NBA announced he would be suspended seven games for striking the Oklahoma City’s James Harden in the head with his elbow.  He also took to his twitter account and ripped Shaq and others for hipocrisy.  Read more after the jump.
Suspended Los Angeles Lakers forward Metta World Peace tells Freddie Coleman of ESPN Radio’s “SportsCenter Tonight” he wanted to celebrate his dunk against the Thunder, but he was way too aggressive in trying to get James Harden out of the way. He says he’s glad Harden is doing well and shares his annoyance with former players judging him for the incident.
“It was bad timing for me and then, physically, it was bad timing for Mr. Harden,” World Peace said after practice was over. “Who can write up a left-hand dunk and then all of the sudden somebody is right behind you? It’s hard to draw that up and to plan something like that. It was just the worst timing for me.”
World Peace echoed his previous statements expressing apologies to Harden and the Thunder organization, but has not reached out to Harden personally since the elbow incident on Sunday that left Harden with a concussion.
“Through a third party, I got wind that he was OK,” World Peace said. “We’re probably going to see each other in the playoffs, potentially, so I really didn’t want to do any direct calls. Stay competitive. But, through a friend, he said he was doing OK.”
He added he has a pre-existing relationship with the L.A.-native Harden from playing pick-up basketball with him during the summer.
World Peace expressed surprise over the severity of his punishment in a new installment of his podcast, “Mettaphorically Speaking: The Ron & Metta Show,” released on Wednesday, but avoided commenting on his suspension with reporters after practice.
“If I start talking about that, I’m going to open myself up for excuses and I’m not one to give excuses,” World Peace said. “So, it’s hard for me to speak about the (amount of) games (I was suspended).”
World Peace took to Twitter on Wednesday to respond to media opinions that he should have received a longer suspension.
“Can magic johnson,jon barry and steven A compare my accidental elbow to the Luis scola face step and the Blake griff take down..?” World Peace tweeted.
“Shaq ,How can u comment on elbows.. What about the punch you threw at brad miller. And the elbows at dikembe and the prizbilla concussion?” World Peace wrote in another tweet.
The tweets were later deleted, but World Peace also posted a blog on his website — ronartest.com — that he titled “When Two Powerhouses Collide.”
For more check ESPN
