Metta World Peace strikes Harden, both sent to lockers

Metta World Peace, renowned American professional basketball player who is currently with the Los Angeles Lakers in the National Basketball Association (NBA), is back in the limelight. Last year in September, he was in headlines for officially changing his name from Ron Artest to Metta World Peace. The idea was inspired by Chad Ochocinco's name change. "Metta" is his first name, and "World Peace" is his surname. "Changing my name was meant to inspire and bring youth together all around the world," World Peace said in a statement after the name change court hearing, according to a report by Los Angeles Times.

This time, Metta World Peace is in the news for hitting Oklahoma City Thunder guard James Harden. Both the players were eventually sent to the locker room in the second quarter of the Lakers’ 114-106 double-overtime victory.

The incident took place when Metta World Peace had just dunked over Kevin Durant and Serge Ibaka on a fast break. He was on his way back to the upcourt when he suddenly ran into Harden. World Peace hit his elbow in the back of Harden's skull. Harden fell on the ground after World Peace hit him. Other players tried to challenge World Peace but they weren’t allowed to retaliate. Both World Peace and Harden were sent back to the lockers. World Peace also had to face an obvious foul-2 after the referees reviewed the tape.

According to a report by Suntimes.com, Metta World Peace talked about it, saying, “I got real emotional and excited, and it was unfortunate that James had to get hit with the unintentional elbow. I hope he’s OK. Oklahoma, they’re playing for a championship this year. I apologize to the Thunder and James Harden. It was just unfortunate.”

Other players weren’t too happy about this. Durant said, “I’m just happy my teammate is all right. It was a bad play. Hopefully Ron (World Peace) didn’t do it intentionally or have any malicious intentions on that. We’ve got to move past that.”

As far as the match is concerned, Metta World Peace was playing well until that happened. He had scored 12 points and played solid defense on Durant.