Metta World Peace Suspension: David Stern and the NBA Get It Right

Metta World Peace is banned for seven games, meaning he'll be unavailable for the Lakers' first six games of the NBA playoffs--provided they get that far. The league waited until right before TNT's national NBA coverage to drop the verdict, though perhaps the timing was coincidental.

So far, it seems most feel Metta got off lightly. That feeling is partially due to how NBA-savvy observers were bracing for David Stern's wrath and accounting for a new culture of concussion awareness. 

In this space, I credit the commissioner for not overreacting. The suspension is fair, insofar as such subjective judgments can be. It was a blind elbow, regardless of consequence. The Palace brawl was nearly a decade ago.

And though many would diminish the severity of such a ban, six missed playoff games is no joke. 

The NBA tends to deal harshly with brawls, most notably the one that made the former Ron Artest famous. Even though this offense was serious and dangerous, MWP did not escalate the tension, and at no point were fans threatened. That counts in his favor.

It also helped that World Peace has been a decent NBA citizen in the latter stages of his career (up to this point, of course).