NBA suspends Metta World Peace 7 games for elbow to James Harden

World Peace, meet Law and Order.

The NBA announced on Tuesday that Los Angeles Lakers forward Metta World Peace — the artist formerly known as Ron Artest — has been suspended for seven games after his vicious elbow to the head of James Harden during a Sunday game at Staples Center left the Oklahoma City Thunder guard with a concussion. The suspension will begin immediately and run into the 2012 playoffs.

“The concussion suffered by James Harden demonstrates the danger posed by violent acts of this kind, particularly when they are directed at the head area,” NBA commissioner David Stern said in a statement. “We remain committed to taking necessary measures to protect the safety of NBA players, including the imposition of appropriate penalties for players with a history of on-court altercations.”

Read more: CBSSports.com

America’s Most Influential Athletes

From the year of the Nascar driver to the year of the quarterback.

Last year three drivers from the Nascar circuit made our list of America’s Most Influential Athletes, led by perennial Sprint Cup Series champ Jimmie Johnson. Nascar hasn’t exactly faded. Johnson, whose talent and guy-next-door demeanor endears him to fans, as well as to marketing chiefs of brands like Chevrolet, Quaker State and Lowe’s, repeats as America’s most influential athlete, based on public opinion polling.  But fellow drivers Dale Earnhardt, Jr. (down from No. 3 to No. 7) and Jeff Gordon (off the list this year) didn’t keep up, making way for newcomers like Jeremy Lin and Manny Pacquiao, and for the rise of several pro quarterbacks.

Read more: forbes.com

Metta World Peace explains ‘unintentional’ elbow to James Harden’s head

After the Lakers’ double-overtime victory over the Thunder on Sunday, Metta World Peace spoke to reporters about the elbow toJames Harden‘s head for which he was ejected shortly before halftime.

“I just dunked on Durant and Ibaka and I got real emotional, real excited,” World Peace said. “It’s unfortunate 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 really hope he’s OK. I apologize to the Thunder and to James Harden. Such a great game, and it’s unfortunate so much emotion was going on at that time.”

Read more: larrybrownsports.com

Delonte West fined $25,000 for sticking his finger in Gordon Hayward’s ear

Delonte West has been fined $25,000 for sticking his finger in Gordon Hayward’s ear during Monday’s triple-overtime Dallas-Utah game, the league announced Wednesday. The NBA is calling it a “physical taunt.”

West admitted after the game that he crossed the line.

“I went over the line,” West said. “I saw some lint in his hair, and I wanted to get it out for him. Seriously, we were like two warriors out there. But I forgot the NBA is a gentlemen’s game. They want us to battle and scrap, but they want us to do it nicely.”

Hayward said he “wanted to fight” West for the stunt. Mavs coach Rick Carlisle was not happy about West’s move.

read more: CBSSports.com

Years later, Magic and Bird still resonate with us

NEW YORK — Even now, decades later, we can’t seem to let go. We still cling to the league’s golden era, to the two guys who authored it, and to the style of play that defined it. We keep coming back for more, any way we can get it.

We’ve always needed heroes, but in a business that too often promotes failure, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird remain as pure as they come. That’s not to say they were perfect, or that they always deserved our unwavering approbation. But we admire them in large part because they were certified members of the human race — talented, fallible, and uncommonly compelling as individuals, but especially in tandem.

Read more: nj.com

Shaquille O’Neal: It was a bush league move by Stan Van Gundy

The TNT crew, Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and Shaquille O’Neal had a lively halftime discussion about the Stan Van Gundy-Dwight Howard press conference Thursday afternoon. And boy was it interesting.

O’Neal, who previously called out Stan Van Gundy during their tenure together with the Miami Heat, said Van Gundy’s lost his Orlando Magic team for the rest of the season with comments he called ‘bush league.’ He also supported Dwight Howard’s alleged conversation with Magic management pushing for Stan Van Gundy’s removal.

read more: orlandosentinel.com

John Calipari uninterested in coaching Knicks, any NBA team

John Calipari isn’t interested in coaching the Knicks or any other NBA team according to a report by Andy Katz of ESPN.com.

“Kentucky is the best job in basketball coaching,” Calipari told Katz. “Why would I leave? We just wont he national title. We’re chasing UCLA.”

No team has even asked Calipari yet, he told Katz, but that isn’t stopping him from putting a fork in the ongoing rumors and debate

Read more: nj.com

Lunch meeting recasts a bad Jeremy Lin headline

A clumsy cliche with racial undertones has fallen, courtesy of Linsanity.

A superior cliche has risen again, thanks to Jeremy Lin.

He walked the walk, instead of just talking the talk.

According to a Newsday story that appeared Wednesday, the 23-year-old Lin met the fired writer of an inflammatory ESPN headline for lunch Tuesday. The meeting had originally been arranged after someone in Lin’s family sent an e-mail to the writer, Anthony Federico, who told Newsday’s Anthony Rieber about the lunch.
Read more: sfgate.com

Larry and Earvin still magic

No two Americans in sports history are woven more tightly together than Larry Bird and Magic Johnson. And yet they’re almost never in the same room.

That’s because Bird, a famous homebody, has an odd rule. He refuses to travel farther than 45 minutes from where he stands, unless he absolutely has to. “I get homesick,” he says with a shrug.

Which is why it was so rare to get them together on March 3 in the rarified air of Beaver Creek, Colo., much less have them sit still for an hour’s worth of my questions.

The best of it:

Reilly: On April 11, you both will be at the premiere of a Broadway play about your lives — “Magic/Bird.” Larry, how many Broadway shows have you been to in your life?

(Sounds of Magic breaking up laughing.)

Bird (laughing): Uh, well (long pause while Magic laughs) … uh … thousands?

Reilly: Zero?

Bird: Yeah, zero.

(Magic now has his hands on the floor, laughing.)

Reilly: It’s just, you don’t seem like a Broadway play kind of guy.

Bird: I’m not! I couldn’t even tell you where Broadway is!

Magic: Ahhhhh!

Read more from ESPN.com

3.7.12

Khloe Kardashian enjoys strip clubs with Lamar Odom

While on Conan O’Brien’s show Wednesday night, Khloe Kardashian-Odom shared a look into her marriage with the Dallas Mavericks’ Lamar Odom.

“I enjoy going to strip clubs,” Kardashian-Odom said. “Lamar and I will go together … it’s fun.”

When O’Brien asked if Odom was allowed to go to clubs without her, Kardashian said she had no issue with the Mavericks’ big man taking in the sights.

CAPTION

By Gary A. Vasquez, US Presswire

“Recently, he went with some of his teammates and he asked, ‘Can I go to a strip club,’” Kardashian said. “I said sure, it’s male bonding or whatever, I don’t care.”

Read more from USAToday.com

3.1.12