Any other player in the league would have gotten away with just a fine. Seriously. Think about it. What exactly did Ron Artest do? Before we get into that we should talk about the beginning of the game, when Ronny got his lip all busted up by a Ginobili elbow. Granted, Manu's back was to Artest, and they were going for a loose ball, and Ginobili didn't even really throw his elbow (it was more like a running motion right as Artest leaned over) but still. The Sickness bloodied the Tru Warier! Did the NBA really expect a guy getting paid millions a year to show discretion? To be able to discern intentional from unintentional? To have the cognitive ability to rationalize anything beyond the need for revenge? How dare the NBA expect so much!
Again, what exactly did Ron Artest do? All he did was throw a clearly intentional elbow to the head of an opponent when the ball was on the other side of the court! It's not liked he clothes-lined the guy or bit him in the nuts! The Tru Warier has that in his arsenal! He totally could have done that! And who would have blamed him? Some guy accidentally bloodied his lip! And that guy's from Argentina. And that guy is playing for a team that could have beaten Tru Warier's team by 50 points that day! And this happened the day after Tru Warier predicted his team would beat the Spurs! Again, what did the NBA expect? For Ron Artest to actually try and do something about the outcome of the game? To actually try and play maybe adequate defense against a guy who was repeatedly torching him? To stop shooting 25 footers? To take good shots? What?
What a joke.