That Metta World Peace elbow was just crazy-on-crazy crime

In case you didn’t see the clip on the almost continuous loop that ESPN’s been playing it on, here’s Metta World Peace going batshit nuts:

After a few years of relative tranquility World Peace has once again placed himself squarely in front of an avalanche coming down Scorn Mountain. Who knows, maybe he’s stopped seeing his shrink:

Did Dr. Santhi Periasamy snap and just not want to treat World Peace anymore, much as Dr. Leo Marvin did when faced with a nightmarish patient like Bob Wiley? I couldn’t blame Dr. Periasamy if that were true. I can’t imagine the utter insanity spewing out of World Peace’s pie hole during any given session with his shrink.

That’s why I take issue with sports columnists who were so shocked by World Peace’s actions yesterday. Do these guys expect anything less from a world class wackadoo? But writers like USA Today’s Mike Lopresti continue to view World Peace as some guy who’s just got some issues with anger management and being a little too selfish:

But too many days, he has been, and still is, Metta World Selfish. Not a thought seems to cross his mind at those mad moments about how his actions can harm his teammates, and his game.

If he truly understood, why would Nov. 19, 2004 not have changed him forever? That was the brawl at Auburn Hills when he was with Indiana, his blind-rage charge into the stands, his punch of a spectator, the 86-game suspension that followed.

It took the Pacers years to recover, an entire franchise nearly wrecked by the lost head of one player. The NBA saw one of its darkest nights. You’d have thought that would set a man straight for good.

But Sunday, he was Metta World Same Old Thing. He might have had his honorable moments since 2004, but he is who he is. The rap sheet is long, and not closed. (USA Today)

Mike, c’mon man, get with the program and just call him what he is: a fucking wack job.  I mean really, does the person below look normal?

I think it’s funny that the dude on the business end of World Peace’s elbow was James Harden, whose hair/beard combo establishes him as a nutjob as well. How many certifiably insane people can David Stern employ?

But if you view the NBA as an extension of the entertainment industry as a whole, then it starts making a little more sense. Where else can crazy people get such well paying gigs? Try to imagine Prince being the manager of a call center or Mickey Rourke being a plumber. And would you drop off your kid at a daycare being run by Lady Gaga?

No, you wouldn’t, because out here in the real world, where paychecks don’t have as many digits in front of the comma and elbowing a co-worker in the head gets you arrested, crazy people aren’t the norm. We normal folks tend to actively avoid crazy people.

However, celebrities are a different matter altogether. They inhabit a bizarro world where the crazy outnumber the sane, and they’re even well compensated to boot. And nothing enables crazy behavior more than throwing money at the person who’s actually perpetrating the craziness. Case in point, World Peace will make nearly $7 million this season even after being fined for this Greg Valentine move. See what I mean?

The only thing keeping these nutbags from being locked in padded cells at Shady Acres is the ability to sing, act or in World Peace’s case be a lockdown defender in the NBA. And that’s why his antics didn’t phase me a bit, that elbow was just a case of crazy-on-crazy crime. Hell, maybe that shot to the head will knock some sense into Harden and make him visit the barber shop.