Skrappy1 Posted November 11, 2004 Share Posted November 11, 2004 (edited) Maybe it's just me, but I think this is one of the most insane articles written about a professional athlete that I have ever read. For those of you who don't follow basketball, Ron Artest in a player on the Indiana Pacers, an awesome defender and excellent overall player, but also a known headcase and problem child. He was suspended by the Pacers for 2 games for conduct detrimental to the team, but they were tight-lipped about exactly why. According to this article, straight from Artest's mouth, evidently what he did to get himself into trouble was asking for some "time off." The season just started last week for crying out loud!!! Apparantely Artest has a rap album coming out soon, and he has been busy running around recording and promoting his album. During this process he tired himself out so much, that he thought it would be ok if he were to just take about a "month or so" off from the Pacers so that he could finish the stuff with his album and rest and recuperate. I know there have been many prima-donnas stars in the sports world, guys for whom team rules and regulations might be bent a little for, but this guy is freaking nuts! Taking a month off because he over-extended and tired himself out with outside obligations??? How many million does he get for playing in the NBA again? Talk about selfish....man, all I can say is wow. http://msn.foxsports.com/story/3153548 Edited November 11, 2004 by Skrappy1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big John Posted November 11, 2004 Share Posted November 11, 2004 Is that why he changed to #91, a number IIRC, only Rodman ever wore before in the NBA? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HighKite Posted November 11, 2004 Share Posted November 11, 2004 The guy is a headcase..I follow basketball bigtime..the guy can defend although he is wild offensively and takes tons of bad shots..that being said the Pacers have a legimate chance to win it all this year but without him I don't think they will have enough to do it...and this guy is the type of headcase to make this a whole season mess..Carlisle won't take much..he is a hard nosed guy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gordon_gekko Posted November 11, 2004 Share Posted November 11, 2004 haha what a Oprahin tool... "take a month or so off" to finish his rap album? gimme a break... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donutrun Jellies Posted November 12, 2004 Share Posted November 12, 2004 This tops Shaq's saving his toe surgery to the start of the season, saying he didn't want to miss his vacations in the offseason, and "since he hurt it on company time, he should be allowed to recuperate on company time" ... I'm thinking of launching a rap album .. I'll have to talk to the hospital about time off ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ursa Majoris Posted November 12, 2004 Share Posted November 12, 2004 Add in Sprewell's "I need to put food on the table" and "What have the Timberwolves ever done for me?" comments , and it's shaping up as a great year for basketball idiots. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polksalet Posted November 12, 2004 Share Posted November 12, 2004 "I just told (coach Rick Carlisle) I wanted to take some time off to get healed up," said Artest, who sat out part of the preseason with a twisted kneecap. "I said it in a bad way. Rick was right. It did compromise the integrity of the team. But I didn't ask him to take a month off to finish no rap album." Both Carlisle and Artest agree the player has frustrated some of his teammates, including a halftime incident with Jermaine O'Neal last Saturday. "Jermaine always sets me straight," Artest said. "I'm not the easiest teammate to play with. Jermaine's a leader on this team and he has to set me straight. J.O. told me to stop acting like a *** fool and I agreed." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HighKite Posted November 12, 2004 Share Posted November 12, 2004 I am impressed with the way Jermaine Oneal has matured as a guy who come straight out of college to be the leader he is today. that being said I think it is in Indiana's best interest to trade Artest before his next Idiot move...this 1 was not his 1st and won't be his last..especially as he grows as a player and gets more pull..I would let someone else deal with that problem if I am Bird/Carlisle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skrappy1 Posted November 12, 2004 Author Share Posted November 12, 2004 Add in Sprewell's "I need to put food on the table" and "What have the Timberwolves ever done for me?" comments , and it's shaping up as a great year for basketball idiots. 550918[/snapback] As a Knick fan I can attest, Sprewell is also an idiot. A lot of fans around here (probably the majority actually) loved him because he is a guy that plays as hard as anyone can play...he just does and says a lot of dumb stuff on and off court as well (kind of like a basketball version of Terrell Owens if you will). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donutrun Jellies Posted November 12, 2004 Share Posted November 12, 2004 I am impressed with the way Jermaine Oneal has matured as a guy who come straight out of college to be the leader he is today. that being said I think it is in Indiana's best interest to trade Artest before his next Idiot move...this 1 was not his 1st and won't be his last..especially as he grows as a player and gets more pull..I would let someone else deal with that problem if I am Bird/Carlisle. 550948[/snapback] True. Jermaine has really stepped it up. Artest? I think Bird/Carlisle give him another chance, but I can't imagine they give him toooooo many more chances before they liquidate him for the sake of team ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skrappy1 Posted November 12, 2004 Author Share Posted November 12, 2004 True. Jermaine has really stepped it up. Artest? I think Bird/Carlisle give him another chance, but I can't imagine they give him toooooo many more chances before they liquidate him for the sake of team ... 551527[/snapback] I'm sure they would love to trade Artest, the problem is that's probably a lose/lose situation anyway you look at it. There's no way anyone is going to give them anywhere near equal value for him because he's such a notrious headcase to begin with, and this latest incident isn't going to endear him to any GMs around the league. ESPN also said he said that if Indiani won the NBA Championship this year, there was a very good chance he'd retire. If this guy is talking like that at his age, teams will stay far, far away from him...nobody is going to want to get burned the way the Dolphins did by Ricky Williams. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donutrun Jellies Posted November 13, 2004 Share Posted November 13, 2004 ESPN also said he said that if Indiani won the NBA Championship this year, there was a very good chance he'd retire. If this guy is talking like that at his age, teams will stay far, far away from him...nobody is going to want to get burned the way the Dolphins did by Ricky Williams. 551620[/snapback] He's mutating into "The Spawn of Rodman" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polksalet Posted November 13, 2004 Share Posted November 13, 2004 Calling Artest selfish misses the bigger point DAN LE BATARD, dlebatard@herald.com Truth is so much funnier than fiction in sports. Ron Artest was suspended this week for, in his coach's words, compromising the team's integrity. This was met with a shrugging Artest asking, in all sincerity, for someone to please define integrity for him. Yahoo! Personals Yahoo! Personals I'm a: Seeking a: Age: to City or ZIP: He wasn't being sarcastic. He really didn't know what the word meant. And symbolism doesn't get any more precious than that -- a spoiled athlete literally not knowing what "integrity" means. Until you consider the reason for Artest's suspension. He had asked his coach if he could have a month off at the start of the season to promote an album. Of course. It was a stupid, myopic, selfish, uproariously funny thing to do. But it was something else, too: Completely irrelevant. And not nearly as interesting as the backlash it unleashed. A CARDINAL SIN? Artest didn't fracture a trust with his teammates, OK? He didn't disrespect the American working man. He just made a dumb request for a sabbatical, was rightly denied by his employer and unleashed a holy hell of excessive media wrath. They are just words, people. Silly words. And they don't speak as loudly as Artest's actions, not nearly. His actions made him Defensive Player Of The Year last season. You can't do that without passion, without caring, without making basketball your priority. It is not physically possible for a 6-7 overachiever to be the best defender in a league of unfathomable athletes by accident. You don't beat out Ben Wallace for that kind of award unless you play this sport with ungodly want. But critics rushed to smear the modern athlete because Artest dared to blaspheme The Great Cathedral we've made of sports, hallelujah. Artest had upset the worshipers and religious writers greatly by asking for a sabbatical from a regular season that bores fans and players alike. He didn't respect the game the way the adoring masses who pay his salary and cheer him do, *** him, and so perception replaced reality and Artest became a symbol for . . . what, exactly? Compromise the integrity of the team? Fracture the trust of his teammates? What the hell do these things mean? Michael Jordan, patron saint for all that is holy in sports, once broke a teammate's face with a punch in practice. Did that fracture a trust on that championship team or just Steve Kerr's face? MERCENARY NEEDED Your defending champions in this very sport wouldn't have a trophy if they hadn't acquired one of the most tempestuous athletes in the history of sports late last season -- head case Rasheed Wallace. Put that in your chemistry beaker and smoke it. Artest is responsible for Indiana having more wins than any team in basketball last season. But we're so busy dissecting what he says that we're ignoring what he does. As Artest's inability to go to a dictionary and look up "integrity" proved, dictator coach Rick Carlisle didn't teach him anything with this suspension. All Carlisle did was hurt his team more than he did Artest because this team needs Artest more than Artest needs this team. Without the league's best defender, the Pacers lost at home to the Clippers by the biggest deficit in franchise history. Artest, meanwhile, used all his free air time amid this national sports scandal to morph into a marketing genius. He explained, over and over, that his album is due out Nov. 23, and you can find more information on his band, Allure, on truwarier.com. God, you have to love sports. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skrappy1 Posted November 13, 2004 Author Share Posted November 13, 2004 (edited) Le Batard is a complete moron though. I can't take anything he says seriously. This is the same guy who initially broke the story on Ricky Williams...he's Rickys buddy and defended him in much the same manner as he tries to defend Artest here. He noted that Ricky wasn't selfish, just a strong-minded individual who felt he had more important things to do with his life than play football, and how we should all greatly respect a young man with such virute who would just leave all that money on the table for what he thought was right. Of course Ricky admitted later that week that he had failed yet another drug test, was facing suspension by the league, and also had no intention of quitting smoking Josh Gordon...he further admitted that all of these things had played a part in his retirement. And now that Ricky is being held financially responsible by the court system, suddenly he has found his passion for football again. If he doesn't care about the money, and he truly feels that he has some inteded higher purpose in life, then why is he trying so desperately to get back into the NFL? Look, obviously Artest didn't go out and kill anyone. Is what he did that much of a travesty to life as we know it, of course not. But to relentlessly defend him, and to say things like, "this team needs Artest more than Artest needs this team," is just plain ignorant. If Artest doesn't even know the definition or meaning of the word integrity, and doesn't understand concepts like that he isn't going to be just given a month off from his mult-million dollar paying job on a whim, how smart do you really think he is? What would he be doing with his life if it wasn't for the NBA? He needs the NBA a lot more than they need him, I'm fairly certain of that. He is NOT Michael Jordan...Jordan brought millions of fans to the NBA. Artest is a nice player, but I seriously doubt there are too many people who are just dying to spend their money to see him play each night. Truthfully, it seems to me like Le Batard is too interested in being part of the crowd with the athletes that he covers, and thus he compromises his own journalistic integrity to try and stay on their good sides. I've seen his smug ass on PTI talking about hanging with a bunch of celebrities at a party on some boat somehwere. I forget exactly what the deal was, but I do remember him saying something about how Hillary Duff and a bunch of athlete types were there...he almost seemed to be bragging. Who cares Dan? I don't know if you ever watch PTI, but they always make a joke out of it now whenever Le Batard guests hosts because they get so much hate mail towards him. I will say that Le Batard does make one interesting point though, and it's something that I had been thinking of the last couple of days...the promotional aspect. It is kind of funny, because there is no way Artest could've bought the type of promotion for his album that it has been receiving all this week for free. I wouldn't doubt that it was intentional...maybe Artest has a very clever friend or agent who suggested that he try and take advantage of his suspension, and I will give him some credit for certainly managing to accomplish that. Edited November 13, 2004 by Skrappy1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ralph Furley Posted November 20, 2004 Share Posted November 20, 2004 I think he'll be taking some time off for sure after the brawl with Detroit. What a crazy scene. Artest is a moron. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turf Boy Posted November 20, 2004 Share Posted November 20, 2004 I think he'll be taking some time off for sure after the brawl with Detroit. What a crazy scene. Artest is a moron. 565574[/snapback] He may be a moron, but, in my mind he wasn't at fault in the brawl. It was on the idiot fans. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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