NBA

This Is What Ron Artest Looks Like When He Does Incredibly Dumb Things

Ron Artest, aka Metta World Peace, likes to dumb out. For stretches of time — some longer than others — he leaves the planet.

He dumbed out for an extended stretch of time during the Malice at the Palace, the infamous 2004 brawl in Detroit where he went after a fan in the stands, and for which he was suspended 86 games and lost $4,995,000. He dumbed out for a briefer period the other night, when he elbowed James Harden in the back of the head while celebrating a dunk. For that incident he was suspended 7 games by David Stern.

When Artest (or World Peace) dumbs out, he gets a certain dazed look in his eye, a coagulation of fear, anger and confusion — it was the exact look he had on his face when 6-foot-10 Serge Ibaka came at him following the Harden elbow.

It is equal parts “I am terrified but I will fight you” and “What is going on and where the hell am I?”

It was also the look he wore for longer than a brief moment during the Malice at the Palace.

Here’s what former Pacers coach Chuck Person said about what Artest looked like that night:

I knew Ron was a guy who would probably need a little more help getting stabilized and getting him off the court. That’s why I went to him. I think he had basically blacked out — he didn’t know where he was. I had to get his attention first and get him to focus on who was talking to him. And I made eye contact with him and he basically stabilized himself.

Now, there are some fundamental differences between the Malice at the Palace and what happened during the Thunder game.

For one, he didn’t punch any fans on Sunday. Second, his dumb decision was reactionary, thus making it less dumb (but still dumb). The brief, split-second choice one makes when they decide to elbow a guy in the back of the head is stupid, but it’s not as stupid as “I’m going to get up, run into the stands, and try to punch the guy I think threw this soda at me.” So at least Ronnie’s improved in that regard.

As Ron Artest got older — as we watched him win an NBA title, and stay out of trouble, and change his name, and talk about his shrink, and tell Jimmy Kimmel about the time he talked to Kobe Bryant in the shower — we thought he had changed. And he had, but only slightly: we thought he had stopped dumbing out completely, but instead, he had simply shrunk that window in which he briefly leaves the planet. He’ll do dumb things until the day he dies, but, like most people, he’ll probably just do them with less frequency as he gets older.