Thunder: Ron Artest wants to be the victim

Poor Ron Artest.

The Lakers enforcer went on The Conan O’Brien Show last night and talked about his elbow to James Harden’s noggin. A lot of what he said, we’ve already heard. No, he hasn’t called the Thunder’s super sub to apologize. No, he doesn’t intent to call him because their teams are likely to play in the playoffs. No, he didn’t know that it was Harden’s head he had smashed into. And yes, he was simply celebrating a dunk.

(Puh-lease.)

But here’s a new one: Artest, who some people call Metta World Peace, says he’s upset that his off-court image is being tarnished.

He told Conan that he does all this charity work and that now, he’s seeing some of those good deeds sullied by what people are saying about this whole ugly incident.

Never mind the fact that Artest was the one who tried to lodge his elbow in Harden’s ear, I guess.

I suppose if you can blame someone else, you try to do it. I suppose if you can make yourself out to the be the victim, you give it a go.

Artest, you see, told Conan that he wasn’t upset about being suspended.

“It was just all the comments,” he said.

And then, Artest wagged a proverbial finger at former NBA players turned commentators. He mentioned former Detroit bad boy Bill Laimbeer, who said Artest shouldn’t have done what he did to Harden. Artest questioned that opinion coming from Laimbeer.

“When this guy, in the 80s, was clearly playing the way I play now,” he said. “I’m like a retro player.”

(Oh, geez. Is this guy for real?)

“A lot of guys were making comments,” Artest continued. “There were a lot of hypocrites. The regular media, I was like, ‘OK, they can have their judgment because that’s what they do.’ But when you get a player that you played with, that you were in the same locker room with that’s talking about you on TV because he has this new job, this new gig or whatever, and he’s talking about you? C’mon, man. You asked me to protect you.”

Listen, I’m not sure any player who asked to be protected expects a guy to smash a violently swinging elbow into another player’s head. I’m just guessing here, but I can’t imagine that’s the kind of protection that players would ask from Artest or any other enforcer.

Artest is trying to make himself out to be a victim here. He’s trying to blame all these other “bullies” for bullying him. He’s hoping that you’ll believe what he’s enduring is worse than any of us could ever imagine.

Well, cry me a river.

(And don’t even get me started on Artest hinting at the fact that Harden somehow asked for it, that he sticks his chin out after other guys dunk, that “this is what he does”.)

This is just one more reminder that Ron Artest doesn’t get it. After all the suspensions and all the reprimands and all the attempts at rehabilitating his image, he still doesn’t understand that other people aren’t his worst enemy.

He is.