Ron's attitude was never a problem with the Pacers. So I'm not surprised by any of this. One thing that really bugged for the almost 5 years Ron was a Pacer is that so many people painted him with a broad brush. If Ron did something wrong, they all assumed Ron was a bad guy. When there was a ESPN report about Ron getting into a fight at some Allstar party in Atlanta a few seasons ago, everyone believed it, it had to be true. But why?, because Ron commits a lot of flagrant fouls? Because Ron threw a TV camera, yes it had to be true, because Ron is a bad guy, so every bad story about him had to be true. It just had to be.
Of course ESPN had to recant the story when it was proven Ron was in Disney World with his family that whole weekend.
That is just an example of what just burned me up about the coverage of Ron Artest.
Ron is not a bad guy, he does not have an attitude problem. And he no longer has any problem with Flagrant fouls, he no longer has a problem with throwing things when he goes to the bench. Ron used to throw the water tray near the Pacers bench about every other game, it got so bad that the Pacers had to move it whenever Ron came near. Ron has changed, he has matured, and I would not be surprised if Ron is incident free in Sacramento.
There were many times when Ron was fouled hard, he had teeth knocked out by some hard fouls and what I thought was dirty fouls, but Ron never retailiated, Ron does not mind physical play from his opponent, in fact he likes it. And Ron has never been a guy who got into with the refs, if Ron does complain to an official it usually was because it was a bad call, but usually he just kept playing.
In many ways it seems to me the Pacers put 5 years into Ron Artest and nursed him through a lot of things, and just when he was improving, he had to be traded. And make no mistake he had to be traded, too much had happened, but he might have turned the corner at least to a degree.
Ron on Kobe: because of injury and suspensions, they rarely went against each other, but Kobe is a very tough cover for Ron. Ron has a mental edge on some players, but no one is mentally stronger than Kobe, so that usual advantage is thrown out the window. Plus Kobe's quickness gives Ron trouble, but most of all Kobe is unstoppable, Ron will defend Kobe as well as anyone can. Too bad Kobe doesn't guard Ron though.
