RONRON, THE BARBARIAN!

It’s one of the most brutal and cheapest attack I have ever seen since Kermit Washington of the Los Angeles Lakers sucker-punched Houston Rockets forward Rudy Tomjanovich during the 1970’s. Ironically, a present-day Laker, who is the shocking recipient of the NBA Citizenship award this season, is once again the guilty party. With 24 seconds to go in game two of the Western Conference second round playoffs and the game  already wrapped up by the Dallas Mavericks, Lakers forward Ron Artest came out of nowhere and struck Mavs diminutive guard JJ Barea on the face while the latter was bringing down the ball from the backcourt. The refs did not think twice as they ejected Artest, who obviously did not protest, out of the court. Artest was suspended for one game by the league and won’t suit up for the Lakers, who are down 2-0 in the series. But is one game suspension enough for the barbaric act displayed by one of NBA’s most eccentric players? I do not think so. Washington was then suspended for 60 games by the NBA for hitting Tomjanovich squarely on his face. I do not see any difference between the on-court hooliganism of  Washington and Artest. Artest deserves more than a game suspension. He should be at least banned for the rest of the playoffs. It’s like the NBA just merely slapped his hands off. Surely, the penalty sucks and it did nothing nor gave justice to Barea and the game.