Metta World Peace Says He Hasn't Spoken to James Harden Since Elbowing Him In the Head

He admits he never called him after it happened.

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More than two weeks after delivering an elbow to the back of his head during a Lakers/Thunder game, Metta World Peace says that he still hasn't reached out to James Harden directly to make sure that he's okay. During an appearance on Conan last night—an appearance that was originally supposed to happen two weeks ago before World Peace's elbow got him into a gang of trouble—World Peace explained that he initially didn't know that Harden was badly injured by his elbow and that he only found out that he was alright after making some calls the day after the elbow happened.

"When it happened, you know, I didn't realize he was that hurt until the day after, because guys in the NBA flop," he told Conan O'Brien. "So I called some third parties, and they said he was OK. It's so competitive, you know, I wanted to make sure he was OK first, so I did that. But to call him to make sure he's OK? I didn't want to do that."

Curiously, World Peace also claimed that Harden may have run into his elbow on purpose on the play. "[Harden] runs into people's elbows," he said. "When somebody dunks, he puts his chin right there. He did it to [Knicks center]Tyson Chandler…I felt something, but I didn't know it was his actual head."

Interesting. So, now World Peace is basically saying that Harden wanted to get elbowed? Hmmm…If the Lakers make it out of the first round of the playoffs and square off against the Thunder in the second round, which it looks like they're going to do, expect us (and the rest of the world!) to continue to have a field day with this story.

[via Team Coco]

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