Now What?

by SonDog

Word on ESPN is that Ron Artest now says, "I'll go anywhere," with his agent saying, "Ron doesn't want to play in Sacramento." Seems a bit contradictory, unless Sacramento doesn't count as "anywhere."

The Maloof brothers, for their part, told Bloomberg News last night, "The trade is not dead yet. We're going to sleep on it tonight and try again tomorrow. The sleep, of course, is after we jump in our bed full of money with seven hookers and have the absolute time of our lives tonight at the Palms." Okay, so I made the last part up, but they did say that the trade is still alive.

And how does Peja Stojakovic even think of going with his team for the game in New York tonight? Can you imagine Peja walking into the locker room tonight saying, "Hey guys, you won't believe what happened to me yesterday." Seriously, how does he even show up? I have not been a Peja supporter ever since he requested a trade two years ago (actually, he requested a "change of scenery." Even his trade demands are soft.) because of Chris Webber. However, I am in his corner today because the organization is kind of screwing him over at the moment. I'm still at a loss at how this trade could come so close, with so much leaking to the media, only to have it derailed by Artest and his agent. They've talked about this trade for over a year, but only now they find out that he doesn't want to play in Sac?

Yesterday, in the girlfriend parallel, I wrote that Artest was a risk because, while he is a Playboy Playmate, he could come with every sexually transmitted disease imaginable. Well, Artest has already infected the entire Kings clubhouse with syphilis and the clap and he hasn't even set one foot in the locker room. How can a guy poison an entire team when he's not even a part of the team? It's mind-boggling.

At this point, the Kings would be fools to consummate the trade. They're going to have to figure out what to do with Peja (three-way trade sending Artest to either the Lakers or Clippers?), but at this point I can't imagine seeing him in a Kings' jersey again.

The bigger fear is what the perception is of Kings' management. Right now they look as screwed up as the teams of the mid-90's. What does this say to Bibby or Miller (or Martin and Garcia)? Greg Anthony of ESPN said yesterday, to paraphrase, "The Kings' situation is not stable enough for Ron Artest. They have a lame-duck coach, their team is horrible and they may not even be playing in Sacramento next year. Can you imagine Ron Artest in Las Vegas?" While Anthony is an idiot if he thinks the Kings will move to Vegas as early as next year, he makes a good point about the coach and the team. That being said, when did Ron Artest earn the option to determine what team he is going to be playing for, and how can Sacramento, of all places, not be stable enough for Ron Artest, the most unstable player in the NBA? You think pairing him with Kobe Bryant, watching him jack up 47 shots a game, in a city like LA so he can hauck his rap album all day is the stable environment he needs? Ludicrous. Just ludicrous. If I'm Larry Bird, there's a good chance I hire somebody to take Artest out during the Vibe awards.

Regardless, I still don't want him in Sacramento, but it just pisses me off to no end that this situation has left Sacramento looking like a collective group of douchebags while their longest-tenured player gets all the respect of a $3.00 Vegas hooker. Not that I'm incredibly bitter at this point.