GP/Artest on KHTK (merged)
- Thread starter Warhawk
- Start date
Exactly my thoughts. Not cool.
Hopefully, Ron will take a leaf out of Ozzie Gulien book. Ozzie did not give any interviews for the most of White Sox championship year to this particularly nasty radioboob from Chitown - Mike North. North is the type of person who spends 4 hours just stirring trouble. With a good dollop of what seems like latent, barely able to hold it back bigotry, couched in pseudo-neocon terms (he's not smart enought to be any kind of conservative). Then after Sox clinched WS, Ozzie finally granted him an interview and immediately proceeded to bash him, asking North if he can say anything in Spanish (North mocked Ozzies English whole year) and does it bother him that not only a Latino coach (Ozzie) won WS, but there is "another man of colour above me" (Kenny Williams, Sox GM). I was never so happy in my life to see another man called out in public and basically emasculated on radio (especially since Ozzie is mouthier then any radioboob).
Ron you know what to do (win the title).
May the next Lamb interview with Ron go as well as the last North-Gulien one!
Hopefully, Ron will take a leaf out of Ozzie Gulien book. Ozzie did not give any interviews for the most of White Sox championship year to this particularly nasty radioboob from Chitown - Mike North. North is the type of person who spends 4 hours just stirring trouble. With a good dollop of what seems like latent, barely able to hold it back bigotry, couched in pseudo-neocon terms (he's not smart enought to be any kind of conservative). Then after Sox clinched WS, Ozzie finally granted him an interview and immediately proceeded to bash him, asking North if he can say anything in Spanish (North mocked Ozzies English whole year) and does it bother him that not only a Latino coach (Ozzie) won WS, but there is "another man of colour above me" (Kenny Williams, Sox GM). I was never so happy in my life to see another man called out in public and basically emasculated on radio (especially since Ozzie is mouthier then any radioboob).
Ron you know what to do (win the title).
May the next Lamb interview with Ron go as well as the last North-Gulien one!
some of u may know this...but let me just add a wee bit to the conversation in the way of background....
kravitz(who poison aspires to be) waged a war against artest in the indystar.....just ripped him every which way, for many years....and management for keeping him...
ron reached the point he wouldnt even talk to kravitz, which only made matters worse...
in this last episide, ron did the interview with mike wells(pacers beat reporter) saying the pacers would probably be better off without him....that he liked rick and his teammates...that he didnt like ricks offense, etc...
then, come to find out, artest and walsh had a sit down where they evidently came to some agreements....in the meantime kravitz comes out with a column just lambasting (lambasting, mike lamb...hmm) artest and his loyalty to the pacers and just pulverized ron in the article....
so ron then goes on a late nite sportscast to do a live interview....first words out of his mouth was, he felt compelled to do so after all the things kravitz wrote....u could tell he was really upset and hurt by them....ron didnt like the idea that the fans would take on that same viewpoint...even offering to buy everyones jerseys back once he signed his new deal....
but in the course of that interview, he managed to paint himself into a corner again, which it appears was not the intent of the interview and ended up reiterating his thoughts that the pacers would probably be better off without him....
and that appeared to be the nail in the coffin....thats what u get with ron....kravitz got to him....and then he ended up doing something he didnt intend to do.....it seems very reasonable based on everything we know now, that the whole thing was gonna be put aside....walsh had told ron, prior to the interview, that he wanted ron to come back to practice and they would work on putting this thing behind them..
but in rons effort to defend himself from kravitz, he went live and thats just never a good thing when ron tries to explain himself in a live interview.....it blew up on him, as it so often does....he just cant think and convey his thoughts in an understandable fashion...in fact, he often times ends up down a totally different tangent and will end up saying something that totally contradicts his true feelings....
it was only a couple days later he again tried to rescind his thoughts about needing to be gone....but by that time, it was too late....and its apparent from donnie that the tv interview was the thing that changed things.....they had an agreement of how to proceed....and when ron tried to defend himself from kravitz he ended up compromising that agreement....and walshs trust-something he had up until that time....
messed up?? oh yea...ridiculous??? yep....should things like that affect a player like that?? nope...but they do ron...u can realize it and try to deal with it as effectively as possible....or u can do nothing and let him deal with it on his own like all other players...and then have it blow up in ur face...
if someone is smart, they wont fire lamb, because u cant send that sort of message...however, some sort of message needs to be sent....and prohibiting interviews of ron from this guy, would make a lot of sense....it sends a message to the reporter, as well as a punishment of sorts...and it prevents any further damage, on that front...
kravitz(who poison aspires to be) waged a war against artest in the indystar.....just ripped him every which way, for many years....and management for keeping him...
ron reached the point he wouldnt even talk to kravitz, which only made matters worse...
in this last episide, ron did the interview with mike wells(pacers beat reporter) saying the pacers would probably be better off without him....that he liked rick and his teammates...that he didnt like ricks offense, etc...
then, come to find out, artest and walsh had a sit down where they evidently came to some agreements....in the meantime kravitz comes out with a column just lambasting (lambasting, mike lamb...hmm) artest and his loyalty to the pacers and just pulverized ron in the article....
so ron then goes on a late nite sportscast to do a live interview....first words out of his mouth was, he felt compelled to do so after all the things kravitz wrote....u could tell he was really upset and hurt by them....ron didnt like the idea that the fans would take on that same viewpoint...even offering to buy everyones jerseys back once he signed his new deal....
but in the course of that interview, he managed to paint himself into a corner again, which it appears was not the intent of the interview and ended up reiterating his thoughts that the pacers would probably be better off without him....
and that appeared to be the nail in the coffin....thats what u get with ron....kravitz got to him....and then he ended up doing something he didnt intend to do.....it seems very reasonable based on everything we know now, that the whole thing was gonna be put aside....walsh had told ron, prior to the interview, that he wanted ron to come back to practice and they would work on putting this thing behind them..
but in rons effort to defend himself from kravitz, he went live and thats just never a good thing when ron tries to explain himself in a live interview.....it blew up on him, as it so often does....he just cant think and convey his thoughts in an understandable fashion...in fact, he often times ends up down a totally different tangent and will end up saying something that totally contradicts his true feelings....
it was only a couple days later he again tried to rescind his thoughts about needing to be gone....but by that time, it was too late....and its apparent from donnie that the tv interview was the thing that changed things.....they had an agreement of how to proceed....and when ron tried to defend himself from kravitz he ended up compromising that agreement....and walshs trust-something he had up until that time....
messed up?? oh yea...ridiculous??? yep....should things like that affect a player like that?? nope...but they do ron...u can realize it and try to deal with it as effectively as possible....or u can do nothing and let him deal with it on his own like all other players...and then have it blow up in ur face...
if someone is smart, they wont fire lamb, because u cant send that sort of message...however, some sort of message needs to be sent....and prohibiting interviews of ron from this guy, would make a lot of sense....it sends a message to the reporter, as well as a punishment of sorts...and it prevents any further damage, on that front...
Mike Lamb is one of the worst sports radio talkshow hosts I have ever heard and I've heard a lot from all over the country. I am convinced that one of the only reasons he has his job is because he has so many contacts in the NFL and during NFL season KHTK has on people that wouldn't normally be on the show if he wasn't there. He's not so bad on the NFL because of his football background, but when it comes to basketball he has no idea.
love_them_kings said:
it never hurts to have a scapegoat handy.
It CAN mess with your mind. He's an emotional guy.
I've seen both interviews you are talking about on Pacersdigest almost as they happened (heh, I was eyeing Ron even back then, so sue me ).
Where I disagree with you is on your read that somehow Bird and Walsh made the decision then and there after the second interview that there is no going back. I am pretty sure that it was long ago that they accepted a possibility that they will have to move Ron, and some time before the interview that they actually tried to move him. I think that ultimately, Ron was moved both by Bulls and Pacers as much because of his teammates as anything else. Spineless weenies at Chicago were terrified of Ron (mutiple reports on numerous occasions) and because Ron was not quite as complete a player as he is now it was easy for Chicago to move him (was that one of the worst trades ever, and last nail in the coffin of any sympathies I may have had for that franchise). In case of Indy you could tell that JO and pretty much everyone else not names Jackson just had it with Ron.
Just look at Buss/Lakers. They will sell their soul to the highest bidder to keep and apease Kobe, and even though Ron's transgressions are much worse then Kobe's he never actually pulled a TO on his teammates. But his teammates did not want him around anymore, or at least JO and they said it. Maybe if he dropped 81 points on Toronto JO would be traded instead, but...
). Where I disagree with you is on your read that somehow Bird and Walsh made the decision then and there after the second interview that there is no going back. I am pretty sure that it was long ago that they accepted a possibility that they will have to move Ron, and some time before the interview that they actually tried to move him. I think that ultimately, Ron was moved both by Bulls and Pacers as much because of his teammates as anything else. Spineless weenies at Chicago were terrified of Ron (mutiple reports on numerous occasions) and because Ron was not quite as complete a player as he is now it was easy for Chicago to move him (was that one of the worst trades ever, and last nail in the coffin of any sympathies I may have had for that franchise). In case of Indy you could tell that JO and pretty much everyone else not names Jackson just had it with Ron.
Just look at Buss/Lakers. They will sell their soul to the highest bidder to keep and apease Kobe, and even though Ron's transgressions are much worse then Kobe's he never actually pulled a TO on his teammates. But his teammates did not want him around anymore, or at least JO and they said it. Maybe if he dropped 81 points on Toronto JO would be traded instead, but...
It is debatable as to whether Ron's transgressions are worse than Kobe's. Insomuch as Ron had crippled the Pacers the last two seasons, Kobe has crippled the Lakers after his power play to get Shaq to leave town and the effects from that are still being felt today. The Lakers could have won a couple more championships with Shaq still on the team. Kobe's own ego hurt the Lakers chances for another crown by alianating Shaq and forcing Buss to choose Kobe over Shaq. Of course there is always Kobe's antics in Colorado that was a huge distraction and hurt the team. Kobe could score 100 and that still wont buy the Lakers another championship as long as his me-first mentality rules that franchise.
bird??? yes...no doubt...he was probably ready to move artest a while ago...
but this wasnt about bird...this was about donnie walsh and the simons...
make no mistake, the reason ron had been here as long as he had and probably wouldve continued was due to the fact that the owners and donnie loved ronnie....literally loved the kid...and it didnt matter what bird thought....
we now know that donnie met with artest immediately following the original article in the paper and prior to his tv interview...this is something we didnt know.....in fact walsh denied it at the time, imagine that....and walsh has since made it clear that that meeting was outlining a plan to put the original article behind them....and not till after the tv interview and a subsequent meeting with ron did donnie agree with ronnie that he would never be able to live some of the stuff down as long as he was in indy-kravitz and many others wouldnt let him.....
there seems to be many indications that the pacers were going to make some changes by the deadline to change the chemistry on the team, namely trading some of the main problems where ron is concerned-anthony johnson being first and foremost...and probably others as well...but that all got sidetracked with the evolution of the rons machinations...
have the simons, walsh, and bird contemplated the time ron might need to go???? of course, any shrewd businessmen do....but i assure u, they didnt plan on doing so, and its now apparent that didnt even change after the initial article.....only after the interview in response to kravitz and ron and donnie getting together again did such a task become a real possibility....and im really not totally certain what wouldve happened if noone stepped forward with an acceptable deal by the deadline....
when the top 3 people in the organization love a player, dont underestimate the lengths they might go to to keep that player....thats the real reason he was in indy as long as he was....
and it appears thats the reason hes in sacramento now...
but this wasnt about bird...this was about donnie walsh and the simons...
make no mistake, the reason ron had been here as long as he had and probably wouldve continued was due to the fact that the owners and donnie loved ronnie....literally loved the kid...and it didnt matter what bird thought....
we now know that donnie met with artest immediately following the original article in the paper and prior to his tv interview...this is something we didnt know.....in fact walsh denied it at the time, imagine that....and walsh has since made it clear that that meeting was outlining a plan to put the original article behind them....and not till after the tv interview and a subsequent meeting with ron did donnie agree with ronnie that he would never be able to live some of the stuff down as long as he was in indy-kravitz and many others wouldnt let him.....
there seems to be many indications that the pacers were going to make some changes by the deadline to change the chemistry on the team, namely trading some of the main problems where ron is concerned-anthony johnson being first and foremost...and probably others as well...but that all got sidetracked with the evolution of the rons machinations...
have the simons, walsh, and bird contemplated the time ron might need to go???? of course, any shrewd businessmen do....but i assure u, they didnt plan on doing so, and its now apparent that didnt even change after the initial article.....only after the interview in response to kravitz and ron and donnie getting together again did such a task become a real possibility....and im really not totally certain what wouldve happened if noone stepped forward with an acceptable deal by the deadline....
when the top 3 people in the organization love a player, dont underestimate the lengths they might go to to keep that player....thats the real reason he was in indy as long as he was....
and it appears thats the reason hes in sacramento now...
Oh, I agree. I was just laughing because if something happened with Artest I don't think Mike Lamb would really care if we blamed him. Frankly, I think he'd feed off of it. Honestly, I think Mike Lamb is an idiot. I cring when during EVERY interview with Artest someone has to bring up his past.. he is obviously trying to turn over a new leaf, and whether or not that succeeds is partially dependent on if we let it.
And then you've got Mike Lamb... who, never mind not bringing it up, actually goes out of his way to call the guy names.... Like I said, he's an idiot, and Grant's not much better.
And then you've got Mike Lamb... who, never mind not bringing it up, actually goes out of his way to call the guy names.... Like I said, he's an idiot, and Grant's not much better.
I have an idea for everybody who is upset and annoyed by Mike Lambs rude, unprofessional behavior. We should all call the radio station 2day at one point or another and voice our displeasure, rather than simply typing it. It will get the point across, that we can't stand his ignorant, closed minded ***, and what he said is bull****, bc as some have said he was trying to get Artest to bite on it. Artest had 12 points in the 4th quarter, Peja probably hadn't scored that many in all the 4th quarters this year. It was a great trade, and we can't let stupid ***** like him try to ruin or sabotage it.
That is my opinion, but in the end do what you will.
That is my opinion, but in the end do what you will.
Last edited by a moderator:
I think we could all learn a little something from this. I'm not sure of who all is guilty of this, and I probably could even be at some point.
I think we could all do a little less of the potshots at Artest and just let the guy play some basketball. He is wonderful player, and from this moment forward he is just that.
I even kind of feel bad for him the way people are treating him, he is not really a bad guy. I even feel a little embarrassed he was treated so poorly last night, even though I wasn't the one who made that remark. Then I just go back and see so many snipes at him and I feel even worse.
Just let they guy play.
I think we could all do a little less of the potshots at Artest and just let the guy play some basketball. He is wonderful player, and from this moment forward he is just that.
I even kind of feel bad for him the way people are treating him, he is not really a bad guy. I even feel a little embarrassed he was treated so poorly last night, even though I wasn't the one who made that remark. Then I just go back and see so many snipes at him and I feel even worse.
Just let they guy play.
"Just let the guy play" could well be the new mantra, IMHO.
I agree completely with what you've said, SKFFL. A few less potshots (and I was guilty before he came here, too) and a little more willingness to let him have the second chance we've given to so many before him.
I was more than embarrassed by what he was subjected to by Mike Lamb last night. IMHO there was NO excuse for that, even though Lamb will most likely argue that greatest of all excuses "I was just being honest."
GO KINGS!
Just let the guy play!!!
I agree completely with what you've said, SKFFL. A few less potshots (and I was guilty before he came here, too) and a little more willingness to let him have the second chance we've given to so many before him.
I was more than embarrassed by what he was subjected to by Mike Lamb last night. IMHO there was NO excuse for that, even though Lamb will most likely argue that greatest of all excuses "I was just being honest."
GO KINGS!
Just let the guy play!!!
I've always disliked Mike Lamb, and this sure doesn't help any.
I could reach through my radio and strangle the guy sometimes...especially when he guffaws at his own lame jokes...and nobody else does.
The only reason I listen to KHTK anymore is for Kings games when I can't watch them...I do my best to completely avoid Grant & Mike's show, unless something is going down at that moment, and even then I'm cursing the fool.
And I used to think Grant was bad.
I could reach through my radio and strangle the guy sometimes...especially when he guffaws at his own lame jokes...and nobody else does.
The only reason I listen to KHTK anymore is for Kings games when I can't watch them...I do my best to completely avoid Grant & Mike's show, unless something is going down at that moment, and even then I'm cursing the fool.
And I used to think Grant was bad.