Now Ron Artest will have plenty of time to promote his rap album.
But this time it’s no joking matter.
This is what we all were afraid of–what the Bulls feared when they traded Artest to the Indiana Pacers despite believing he could become an elite player–the rage, the uncontrollable anger that frightened everyone.
The halftimes when Artest, seemingly unaware that anyone else was in the room, would stand 5 feet from a wall, throwing the basketball as fast as he could just about at teammates’ heads.
Smash! Smash! Smash!
It would come careening back. Again and again. Players dared not move. What would he do next?
Five-hundred-pound weight machines in the practice facility were tossed over after vain attempts to pull them out of their moorings. The Bulls despaired, and they also feared for the likable, generous kid who was nearly broke because he never could say no to a family member or friend. He tried to get a part-time job on Sundays to supplement his salary.
They suspended him, they benched him. Nothing did much good. They hired a psychiatrist, who recommended medication. Artest threw it away. He admitted there was a history of such behavior in his family.
Now Artest may have thrown away his NBA career.
Friday night’s brawl in Auburn Hills, Mich., among the Pacers, Pistons and fans, which caused the game to be called with 45.9 seconds left, was one of the ugliest in the history of American sport.
Players likely will face criminal charges. Lawsuits will be filed. Suspensions will be massive. Saturday, Artest, Stephen Jackson and Jermaine O’Neal and Detroit’s Ben Wallace were suspended indefinitely.
Players in both locker rooms in Phoenix after the Suns defeated the Lakers were aghast. Chicagoan Quentin Richardson likened it to neighborhood gang wars he saw as a kid that often ended in death.
“Someone’s going to be getting a lot of players’ money,” he said.
Lamar Odom and Kobe Bryant in the Lakers locker room watched in horror and warning. Why can players be assaulted like that from the stands? they asked. No one condoned what the players did, but this fan abuse has to be curtailed, they said.
Old-timers standing near Lakers coach Rudy Tomjanovich likened some of the punches thrown by Artest at fans to the punch Kermit Washington hit Tomjanovich with that led to a half-season suspension.
Artest certainly wasn’t the only one involved.
Ben Wallace started it all, though there was Artest again with one of those pushes from behind that anger opponents. Wallace turned on him, and one of those brouhahas common in baseball continued with lots of milling around and separating. Artest sprawled out on his back on the scorer’s table and started doing a radio interview.
A cup and beverage flew out of the stands and hit Artest, and he snapped.
It’s the term used by many when talking in hushed tones about Artest.
He charged into the stands, throwing punches. Teammates followed. Artest hit a fan in the face with a punch that brought roars of horror in the Lakers’ locker room. No one had seen anything like this. No one was cheering. Everyone winced.
Especially the NBA.
This has not been a great season for the league so far.
Yes, scoring is up, and several teams have surprised with exciting play. But league officials have been worried and furious about the pettiness and childishness of so many players, demanding trades or threatening to sit out because things weren’t going their way. The public view too often has been of spoiled, selfish babies. Ticket prices have been rising and passion diminishing. And then the league lost control.
It has never been fully clear why fans are allowed to hurl vile epithets and spew vulgarities like they do. Players have come to expect it, if not fully understand or appreciate the originality. But the fans remain sacrosanct, no matter how moronic. They pay the bills.
There is no bigger sin than attacking the boss.
The NBA’s boss will make that point. No one Friday night got a bigger black eye than the NBA, which is largely concerned with image. Don’t be surprised if Artest is suspended for the rest of the season, others for weeks.
Perhaps we all should have seen this coming.
It never quite got there with Dennis Rodman, but the pleas for help seemed obvious. It’s just that when the guy can get a key rebound or score a big basket or win Defensive Player of the Year–and you’re paying him millions–it’s difficult to send him away for the treatment he might need.
Don’t blame the Pacers. No team does it.
After all, these are professionals–mercenaries, really–and they assume the risks.
But Artest seemed to be crying out for help. He asked for time off, either because he was tired from working with his new music company or to promote its new release this week. The Pacers gave him a few games off and everyone wrung their hands and asked how he could do that, or maybe this was a ploy to get attention for his label or what the heck, it’s just Artest. It’s not that the Pacers didn’t know something was wrong.
Artest was a handful throughout last spring’s playoffs, missing flights and challenging coach Rick Carlisle. He has tried to drive the team to trade him since. Teams were curious about the talent, but fearful.
Stories continued about Artest, and the team even put him off limits to questioners last week. Teammate O’Neal lashed out when an ESPN crew came in last week to ask more questions about Artest. The boiling point was nearing, but there’s that thing about a watched pot. Then everyone turned their heads, and the pot exploded.
There will be plenty of time now for Artest to get help. We all hope he does this time.
