World Peace’s past a factor, says Stern

Basketball • NBA commissioner David Stern said Wednesday the elbow that Metta World Peace used to give James Harden a concussion was “recklessly thrown” and the Los Angeles Lakers forward’s history absolutely weighed into the suspension.

Stern suspended World Peace for seven games Tuesday, a penalty that could force him out of the entire first round of playoffs, for the elbow he delivered to Harden’s head in a game against Oklahoma City on Sunday.

Stern said he took many things into account, including World Peace’s numerous past troubles. World Peace, who changed his name from Ron Artest, received an 86-game suspension in 2004 — the longest for an on-court incident in NBA history — for jumping into the stands at the Palace of Auburn Hills in the Detroit suburbs to fight fans.

“In fact, if it had been somebody that got tangled up and threw an errant elbow, would that have been different than this? You bet it would have been,” Stern said.

“It’s really very serious stuff and it does take in account the fact that the perpetrator is who he is and has the record that he has, and this called for in our view a very stiff penalty and we think that seven games, which only includes one regular-season game, is such a stiff penalty.”

Meanwhile, Atlanta centre Al Horford says he won’t play in the opening round of playoffs against Boston. He has missed most of the season recovering from surgery to repair a torn left pectoral muscle.