You may remember NMA, the Taiwanese animation studio that, uh, adds its own unique angles and storytelling skills to the coverage of the current news cycle from such items as the Tiger Woods scandal or NBA lockout. It should surprise no one, then, that an interpretation of Metta World Peace’s freakishly violent elbow on Oklahoma City Thunder Sixth Man of the Year candidate James Harden on Sunday afternoon and resulting seven-game suspension from the NBA, handed down yesterday, has been crafted by the minds at NMA.
Below is the video, which takes us back to the Malice at the Palace incident in Detroit, shed in a somehow even-more out of control light, complete with Molotov cocktails, some sort of laser gun wielded by the time-traveling Austin Daye, and a bloody aftermath on the court that’s really going to leave a mark on that fresh coating and finish.
I could say more, but believe that this video needs to be seen with your own eyes. World Peace’s elbow on Sunday is actually depicted in a way that many were feeling towards it directly after it happened, and his turn from monk to solider in one of the video’s concluding scenes is just brilliant, brilliant symbolism (You know, because of the name thing). This is serious stuff.
So yeah, check the video out for yourself. World Peace will likely miss most of the first round of the playoffs due to this suspension, and it’s fair to say that the NBA served strong notice while doing its best to treat the incident as an isolated one in their punishment as best they could with the former Ron Artest involved. This video will not help clear anything up in your mind — in fact, it only contributes to the surreal feeling of the situation — but it is certainly a different way of telling the story. If we should expect anything from the Taiwanese animators at NMA by now, it’s that.
(Video courtesy of Ball Don’t Lie via IamaGM)
Griffin Gotta contributes to The Hoop Doctors and is a co-managing editor of Straight Outta Vancouver. The story arcs and infinite weirdness of the NBA are addictions he deals with every day. Email him at griffingotta at gmail dot com.
