James Harden is one of the best guards in the NBA now, but he wasn’t all that when he came in. He was a 6th Man of The Year winner in Oklahoma City Thunder, playing behind Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant.

Considering his low-profile early on, Harden became known across mainstream circles for eating an elbow from Metta-Sandiford Artest, commonly known as Ron Artest.

While Artest was discussing the infamous ‘Malice At The Palace‘ with Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson, he brought up that infamous moment from 2012.

“That reaction is the same reaction I gave James Harden. Because I didn’t really flush hit him. He would have had a knot, you can look at it closely. I hate that image. It’s one of my worst. That’s something, I hate that image.”

Artest was served with a 7-game suspension for the flagrant elbow on Harden. That moment has since become a massive meme on the internet, with many poking fun at Harden’s animated response.

While the internet can be cruel, it is good to see that Artest feels bad about clocking the future MVP that hard. Harden won his 6th Man Of The Year that season.

James Harden and the infamous elbow

The elbow that Harden ate became a viral sensation overnight. However, Harden was hurt at that moment. He left the game and was diagnosed with a concussion. Artest has always maintained that the elbow was unintentional, as Harden came up when Artest was celebrating.

“It was bad timing for me and then, physically, it was bad timing for Mr. Harden. Who can write up a left-hand dunk and then all of the sudden somebody is right behind you?

“It’s hard to draw that up and to plan something like that. It was just the worst timing for me.”

If you look back at the tape, it is harder to say that it was an intentional elbow. Artest cocked it back and really swung hard. However, there is always a chance that it really is what Artest said it was.

Considering how he has grown to hate the image of him knocking Harden out, he’d probably go back and erase this moment from his history if he could.