The "Real" Ron Artest

Bricklayer said:
Oh good lord. :rolleyes:

I made the same remark a few weeks ago to another player fan who is no longer with us: many a player fan ends up doing his idol a disservice by making excuses, blaming others, complaining in ways that the principal himself might never do.

And in this case I sincerely HOPE that the principal doesn't share your propensity to shift the blame around. If he hasn't reached the point in his maturation where he can own up to ****ing up, then he will likely do it again.

u see....its simply not one or the other.....

ron is anything but spotless....ron has made many mistakes....more than most....hes definitely high maintenance.....

but to suggest hes singlehandedly responsible for all wrong that has happened to the indiana pacers is just plain ridiculous....

was he solely responsible for the 61 win season??? no..he wasnt...he was a part of it....and he certainly was front and center in both the good things that happened to the pacers and the bad things....thats typical of the star players....

but alot of mistakes were made....and they dont stop and start with ron....

everyone loves to have a scapegoat...like ive said, it makes it easier to ignore the mistakes made by others....but like donnie walsh said, he feels like he failed.....whether it was failing ron...or failing to do something sooner....

things didnt have to end like they did....but thats life....if everyone could go back and change things, then life would play out differently...not necessarily better...just differently...

what if the pacers re-signed brad miller and let JO walk??? or sign and traded him??? what if they didnt trade al harrington for stephen jackson??? u dont think theres a large number of people that believfe that was a major mistake??? what if ron had punched ben wallace in the jaw instead of backing off??? how could bird and walsh sit back and do nothing at the beginning of this season when they publicly admitted something was definitely wrong with the team and specifically its chemistry.... u can do these things til the end of time....

bottom line is mistakes were made...things couldve been done differently....life is a serious of chain reactions...

one person is never responsible for the outcome of so many....no matter how convenient it might be....
 
Hicks said:
This may be a bad time to mention it, coming off an emotional game, but I'm not around KF.com often and wanted to get this out while I'm here. Again, I apologize in advance for stepping on any toes.

But tonight was the first time you got to see the one big on-court red flag involving Ron Artest. He doesn't handle pressure well. What you saw tonight, taking a series of bad shots and missing most of them, which disrupts the offense, is what he would do to us in big, close games. Tonight reminded me of his games during the 2004 Eastern Conference Finals. He takes a lot of forced shots when he feels he has to win the game for his team, and usually it just ends up hurting them.

I'm not here to gloat. But I did want to point out one of the reasons seeing him leave wasn't so awful, aside from all the off-court issues.

Now to prove I'm not here to be a jerk, let end by saying that Ron still brings a ton of positives to every game. Energy, determination, defense, toughness, some good offense, etc. And when he's not being Captain Cancer off the court with his antics and distractions, he's still a hell of an asset. But you want someone other than him dominating the ball at the end of 9/10 close games.

Good luck for the rest of the season. Now that this game's over with, I'll be happy to see the Kings do well into the post season. I'm a huge Brad Miller fan and Ron is still fun to watch.

Not many players in the league get the "boo every time they touch the ball" treatment, so last night was NOT an indication that he's the type who cracks under pressure. It's understandable. It's not like he will get booed every time in a playoff game.

And whatever happened in Indiana those years, stay in Indiana. Ron gets an absolutely clean slate.

Don't bad mouth him after one bad game. Pacers are lucky they won't have to face him again this season. You know it.
 
Sacramento Kings - 7th in the West w/ Ron Artest

Sacramento Kings - Out of the playoffs w/ Peja




Give me the "Real" Ron Artest any day if thats my choice.
 
It's hilarious to me that some find my initial comments to be trolling, but no one speaks up to foretaz for calling me a bitter, shallow, and insecure person.

And insinuating that I live a bitter, unhappy life that is so miserable that it can only be described as a harsh reality. Which in turn causes me to be so pathetic that I seek to hurt someone else to make myself feel better.

How the hell does THAT get a free pass on any board? That's pure, belittling libel and it's far more insulting than anything I have posted.
 
Regarding Ron, what he did last night, he did as a Pacer. Call it pressure, call it mental stress, call it whatever you want, but he does it, and he does it enough to notice it when it happens again. That's all I'm saying. I'm not tearing the man apart, and I'm not lying.

leader said:
And whatever happened in Indiana those years, stay in Indiana. Ron gets an absolutely clean slate.

Don't bad mouth him after one bad game. Pacers are lucky they won't have to face him again this season. You know it.

Fine, but let it go both ways. I have a lot of people telling me constantly Peja's a choker. But I only wanted to talk about Artest. I'm not attacking Ron, and I'm not criticizing him to defend Peja. This isn't about Stojakovic.

I'm not bad mouthing him as I've explained before. I'm pointing out a problem he had here that I saw him do for you now. I was letting you know that you can anticipate it happening in big games. Not every game. Not even every big game. But it does and will happen. That's all.
 
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Hicks said:
Regarding Ron, what he did last night, he did as a Pacer. Call it pressure, call it mental stress, call it whatever you want, but he does it, and he does it enough to notice it when it happens again. That's all I'm saying. I'm not tearing the man apart, and I'm not lying.



Fine, but let it go both ways. I have a lot of people telling me constantly Peja's a choker. But I only wanted to talk about Artest. I'm not attacking Ron, and I'm not criticizing him to defend Peja. This isn't about Stojakovic.

I'm not bad mouthing him as I've explained before. I'm pointing out a problem he had here that I saw him do for you now. I was letting you know that you can anticipate it happening in big games. Not every game. Not even every big game. But it does and will happen. That's all.

I don't have any issues with you raising a red flag on Ron's propensity to become so hyped up in big games that his infinity intensity can become counter-productive. If you decide to view it as a "problem", then yes he has had that "problem" since day 1 in NBA, with Bulls. I don't think it is a problem or any different from Kobe or MJ before him missing all those shots in 4th over the years in addition to all the big shots that they made. For example, the other night, it as another emotional game (against LAL) where Ron hyped himself up into frenzy and even made a dubious annaouncement that he will shut down Kobe. The end result was pristine, 24-carat A+ game from Ron. Then there are games like last night... I'll take the good with the bad.
 
In Sacramento Ron has been given the opportunity from day one to have the ball in his hands when the game is on the line; something he wasn't given in Indy. So far Ron has been great in the fourth quarter and although last night was a bad game for him I chalk it up to emotion more than anything else. As far as Peja goes, I'm not even sure he wanted the ball in crunch time when he was with the Kings.
 
Hicks said:
It's hilarious to me that some find my initial comments to be trolling, but no one speaks up to foretaz for calling me a bitter, shallow, and insecure person.
.
Watching two pacers fans argue is good entertainment.
 
thesanityannex said:
Watching two pacers fans argue is good entertainment.

I prefer watching tu Lakers fans argue. Much more benifitial. But this is not too bad either. :p
 
Hicks, thank you for sharing your thoughts. You've been around here for a while, and I respect your analysis. For anyone to accuse you of trolling is misguided.

While I hope you're wrong, I agree with QF that we should be OK in any case, even if Ron doesn't take the pressure well. He should be able to maintain his defense, but if Bibby takes over the offense in the clutch like he's been willing and able to do, I'm more than fine with that. And the Kings should be too.
 
Hicks said:
This may be a bad time to mention it, coming off an emotional game, but I'm not around KF.com often and wanted to get this out while I'm here. Again, I apologize in advance for stepping on any toes.

But tonight was the first time you got to see the one big on-court red flag involving Ron Artest. He doesn't handle pressure well. What you saw tonight, taking a series of bad shots and missing most of them, which disrupts the offense, is what he would do to us in big, close games. Tonight reminded me of his games during the 2004 Eastern Conference Finals. He takes a lot of forced shots when he feels he has to win the game for his team, and usually it just ends up hurting them.

I'm not here to gloat. But I did want to point out one of the reasons seeing him leave wasn't so awful, aside from all the off-court issues.

Now to prove I'm not here to be a jerk, let end by saying that Ron still brings a ton of positives to every game. Energy, determination, defense, toughness, some good offense, etc. And when he's not being Captain Cancer off the court with his antics and distractions, he's still a hell of an asset. But you want someone other than him dominating the ball at the end of 9/10 close games.

Good luck for the rest of the season. Now that this game's over with, I'll be happy to see the Kings do well into the post season. I'm a huge Brad Miller fan and Ron is still fun to watch.
its funny how i posted something about ron on your little forum and everyone jumped on my back but you come over here with crap about ron that we dont care about. the fact is ron is a better player then peja and does things that peja couldnt do if he tried. so go back to pacers digest or whatever its called.
 
Bonzinator - I actually thought you'd last more than one day. Your comments are WAY out of line and in direct violation of our policy about not attacking other members of this forum.

Hicks may be part of PacersDigest, but he has also been a member here for quite some time and has NEVER posted anything inappropriate on this forum.
 
Bonzinator said:
its funny how i posted something about ron on your little forum and everyone jumped on my back but you come over here with crap about ron that we dont care about. the fact is ron is a better player then peja and does things that peja couldnt do if he tried. so go back to pacers digest or whatever its called.

everyone is welcome here
 
Hicks said:
It's hilarious to me that some find my initial comments to be trolling, but no one speaks up to foretaz for calling me a bitter, shallow, and insecure person.

And insinuating that I live a bitter, unhappy life that is so miserable that it can only be described as a harsh reality. Which in turn causes me to be so pathetic that I seek to hurt someone else to make myself feel better.

How the hell does THAT get a free pass on any board? That's pure, belittling libel and it's far more insulting than anything I have posted.

He's not getting a free pass. A warning has been sent to him via PMs.

Sorry, Hicks. You're welcome here any time. Your board is a lot like ours, so I'm sure you understand that we occasionally put up with quite a bit before actually warning someone they're close to being banned.

Peace.
 
Not sure if I agree with Hicks. What we have seen from Ron is the ability to take over down the stretch in games. However, when he is off, he is way off and can be destructive to the overall team. (0-10 type stuff in the fourth) Peja on the other hand when he is off will go 0-1. Not sure which I would rather have. A guy who will disappear or a guy who will brick a bunch of shots.

I say we ride this Artest thing through the year and then package him for amazing, less-psycho, low maintenance player. I think we are seeing his market value soar. Just my two sense, as I see some truth in Hicks words.
 
Heuge said:
I say we ride this Artest thing through the year and then package him for amazing, less-psycho, low maintenance player. I think we are seeing his market value soar. Just my two sense, as I see some truth in Hicks words.

You just don't get your hands on guys at Artest's level very often. And nobody is going to trade us one of theirs for Ron.
 
VF21 said:
He's not getting a free pass. A warning has been sent to him via PMs.

Sorry, Hicks. You're welcome here any time. Your board is a lot like ours, so I'm sure you understand that we occasionally put up with quite a bit before actually warning someone they're close to being banned.

Peace.

Thank you.

I know I'm not a regular here, but I think those that remember me know I'm not going to waste anyone's time with trolling.

I am here to talk basketball, and my first post was honest basketball opinion; no one has to agree with it. I like it when it's challenged honestly, not just with Peja bashing on in the case of a few, insults.

For all of your sakes, I hope I saw the worst of Ron Artest and you get to enjoy the benefits of him working his malfunctions out in Indiana, while being who he should be in Sacramento.

I'm very interested to see how he handles the playoffs again this year. He seemed to stay in check in Indiana through the semifinals, but once the ECF got here, be it pressure, immaturity, mental fatigue, whatever, he started to play like he did last night at crucial moments, and it hurt us. Most notably in Game 6, which we had a chance to win.

To help pass the peace pipe, allow me to share one of my favorite Ron Artest memories:

This happened nearly every time we'd play a team with a high-scoring SF or SG that Ron would usually guard. Think Richard Jefferson, Latrell Sprewell, Paul Pierce, guys like that. It seemed like every time we played them, Ron would cause them to have a bad scoring night, or at the very least a bad shooting night, and we would win. Seemingly without fail, every post-game quote from the other teams' wingman would deny, deny, and deny some more Ron's D having anything to do with their bad night. "I wouldn't say it was anything he did, I just missed shots." Get used to that line. *laugh*

The best was Tracy McGrady. I can think of at least twice when he had been battling back problems that had him listed as day to day, and he'd be playing and all of a sudden it was Indiana on his schedule and he'd have his back "flair up" and then be back the next game. :D
 
Hicks said:
Thank you.

I know I'm not a regular here, but I think those that remember me know I'm not going to waste anyone's time with trolling.

I am here to talk basketball, and my first post was honest basketball opinion; no one has to agree with it. I like it when it's challenged honestly, not just with Peja bashing on in the case of a few, insults.

For all of your sakes, I hope I saw the worst of Ron Artest and you get to enjoy the benefits of him working his malfunctions out in Indiana, while being who he should be in Sacramento.

I'm very interested to see how he handles the playoffs again this year. He seemed to stay in check in Indiana through the semifinals, but once the ECF got here, be it pressure, immaturity, mental fatigue, whatever, he started to play like he did last night at crucial moments, and it hurt us. Most notably in Game 6, which we had a chance to win.

To help pass the peace pipe, allow me to share one of my favorite Ron Artest memories:

This happened nearly every time we'd play a team with a high-scoring SF or SG that Ron would usually guard. Think Richard Jefferson, Latrell Sprewell, Paul Pierce, guys like that. It seemed like every time we played them, Ron would cause them to have a bad scoring night, or at the very least a bad shooting night, and we would win. Seemingly without fail, every post-game quote from the other teams' wingman would deny, deny, and deny some more Ron's D having anything to do with their bad night. "I wouldn't say it was anything he did, I just missed shots." Get used to that line. *laugh*

The best was Tracy McGrady. I can think of at least twice when he had been battling back problems that had him listed as day to day, and he'd be playing and all of a sudden it was Indiana on his schedule and he'd have his back "flair up" and then be back the next game. :D

Now that's a nice Ron story.
 
Richard Jefferson I think it was, said that the Fieldhouse was cold and blamed that on his bad shooting night, when he played us at the start of the season.

:D
 
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