Suspensions for Sports Violence

Metta World Peace (hereafter referred to as MWP), the artist formerly known as Ron Artest, tossed this haymaker elbow in Sunday's game against the Oklahoma City Thunder...

It was a tough game and evidently there had been jawing from victim James Harden during the game. As you see in the replay, MWP knocked down the basket and was ready to flex some muscle and attitude while getting down on defense. Harden was getting ready for the inbound, at least nominally. Suddenly, BAM!, Harden goes down.

MWP has a history of bad behavior in the NBA. In Indianapolis he was responsible for a huge fight in the stands. (It's true, he didn't start it, but going into the stands, especially when you start slapping around the wrong guy, is never a good thing for a millionaire to do. It'll get you sued quick!) So what ever his punishment will be, it will be based on being a repeat offender, and so be it.

I have heard that Harden has a concussion. Here's hoping he doesn't, but if he does he'll miss a few games.

So if I were the Czar of Sport Punishment, how would I handle MWP? Easy. First, I'll agree with everyone who says he should miss ten games. Good start. But here's my wrinkle: First, he misses the same number of games Harden misses because of the injury AND THEN he serves the ten.

So, if Harden misses six games because of the concussion, MWP misses a total of sixteen. If he's knocked out for the season then so is MWP then he serves the ten next season. If Harden misses the playoffs then so does MWP.

By the way, this has a "professional death penalty" implication too: If your intentional violent action ends someone's career then your career ends too.

My rationale is simple, nobody should benefit by intentionally injuring another player. I want the punishment to fit the crime. If you take someone out intentionally, you go too. For those who say I'd end careers, I would say "Well, in the (insert sports league here...). There's always Japan, Italy, Turkey, Israel, Finland...(I can't think of another place for NFL style football, so they'd better be careful or check out the Arena League.) Playing is a privilege, if you intentionally destroy someone's career you'd better be ready to pick up the shattered pieces of your career too.

I know accidents happen, Joe Theismann knows this better than anyone. But this Suspension for Sports Violence would not have been applied in that case because it was not intentional. It was a horrible injury, but it was not intentional.

Sure, lawyers, unions, and leagues would fight implementation tooth and nail, and that's fine. But implementing this sort of rule would curtail many cheap shots seen in sports and that's a good thing. As for the cheap shots still taken, implementation just might get it out of the league another way.