Artest’s road to redemption may conclude with Lakers, in Finals
June 1st, 2010 Posted in NBA basketball newsIt was nearly 11 months ago when Ron Artest signed with the Lakers, and the elation he felt that day was boundless but very much without meaning. There was no way Artest, once the villain of basketball, cou until hed earned it.
The payoff came, along with the understanding, in a 72-hour period from the thrilling, chaotic ending to Game 5 through the clinching Game 6 in the Western Conference finals Saturday night. After saving the Lakers from a potentially devastating home loss with his improbable buzzer beater at Staples Center, Artest calmly and methodically made shot after shot, one sensible decision after another, in the 111-103 victory over the Suns that sent the Lakers on their third consecutive trip to the Finals.
Just wow, it just clicked, said Artest about his connection with the Lakers. (AP) So I asked Artest in the locker room if he felt like hed finally become a Laker in the past two games, in this rollicking three-day journey to the Finals, where he will confront his demons once and for all. He thought about it, eyes darting nervously around the locker room, and said, “Its a perfect connection all of a sudden, youre right. I do have that feeling. Were one. We just became one. And thats been hard, because you dont want to come in here and do too much and mess up their rhythm. And these last couple of games, just wow, it just clicked.”
It clicked for the Lakers and for their erratic, well-meaning, sometimes incoherent co-pilot. And in that moment Saturday night, when it dawned on Artest how far hed come, it became clear that Artest was carrying the Lakers on his own personal journey to redemption as much as they were carrying him to the brink of his first championship.
As is always the case with Artest, its complicated. Achieving his first trip to the Finals, and helping the Lakers get back there again, marks the end of a journey that can be traced to the lowest point of his basketball life. For the villain of the Palace, closure is almost here.
In an interview with CBSSports.com, Artest recently revealed just how scarred he remains from the infamous brawl at the Palace of Auburn Hills in 2004, when he was excommunicated from basketball and br a castoff not worthy or capable of rehabilitation. And it is worse than that for Artest, who said to this day he feels like a coward when in the presence of his former Pacers teammates like Reggie Miller and Jermaine ONeal, as well as executives Larry Bird and Donnie Walsh.
“The biggest regret of my life, really, is bailing out on that Pacer team,” Artest said. “I mean, outside not going to church every single Sunday, bailing out on that Pacer team is my biggest regret. Every time I see Jermaine, every time I see Steve [Jackson] and Jamaal [Tinsley] … I get a little bit of a feeling when I see Bird, because he was such a great player and I respect him so much. So I get that feeling when I see Bird. I feel like a coward. I feel like I dont even belong in their presence, really.”
The Pacers were coming off a 61-win season and a loss in the Eastern Conference finals when Artests career, and the Indiana franchise, were dealt a blow from which it seemed neither would ever recover. As much as the brawl itself, and the 73-game suspension that followed, A demanding a trade and bailing on his team.
This is the first time Artest has spoken publicly about the anguish he continues to nearly ruin his basketball career, and more to the point, dismantle an organization that seemed poised for a championship. In fact, Artest said he has not once told Walsh, Bird, Miller or anyone else how he feels.
“Never,” Artest said.
Well, now they know.
“When I saw Jermaine [this season], I felt like I didnt even belong in the same room as him,” Artest said. “I felt like a coward. I dont like feeling like a coward, and I feel like a coward. Thats the biggest regret of my life. St a blue-collar guy like him, put his life on the line for us on the court, and I totally disrespected him. And of course Reggie. I was in a position to win a championship, Reggie was in position, and I bailed out on Reggie. I feel like a coward. A big-time coward. Its hard for me to even speak to maybe because, as Phil Jacks all of this has come full circle for Artest, who stands four wins away from the championship he feels he stole from himself and the Pacers six years ago. Artest, the pariah, whose tenure ended badly in Sacramento and with epic failure in Indiana, understood Saturday night in Phoenix that hes been given a chance to make it all right.
“I put it in Gods hands,” Artest said. “I always told God, I didnt know if hed ever give me another chance. Because some things were not my fault, some things were. And the ones that were my fault, I felt pretty bad. But I feel blessed and I think God put me in a good situation in Indiana. He put me in a beautiful situation. I got married in Indiana, its my home, four years there, had a chance to go to the championship and I screwed it up. Screwed it up. So I said, If you never give me another opportunity again, Ill understand. Hes just continued to bl Houston, Sacramento, here. I didnt think hed give me another chance, but he did.”
The latest chance came fluttering through the air at Staples Center Thursday night, an airball from Kobe Bryant that Artest saw struggling like a wounded bird. His instincts, not always the best, told him to go save it. And so he did. He rescued the ball and saved the Lakers season and then, of course, ranted about being disrespected by coach Alvin Gentry, who had the temerity to double-team Bryant and leave Artest open throughout the entire conference finals.
When Jackson chided Artest for launching too many ill-advised 3-pointers in the Utah series, Artest didnt recoil; he went o a sensib he unloaded with 25 points on 10-for-16 shooting with three steals in the clinching game against the Suns.
“Im just trying to play the right way, and the right way for our team is to get the ball to Kobe and get the ball to Pau [Gasol],” Artest said. “Its not a secret. Sometimes [opposing coaches] say, OK, let Ron shoot. But thats not how we want to play. I dont want to jack up a bunch of 3s. But sometimes they leave me wide open and Im like, Cmon, you guys played agains but, You coached me. You know what type of player that I am. Why are you leaving me open? So I just feel a little bit of disrespect. Obviously, Im not the No. 1 guy, but I was. And Ill be able to get you in the post, bury you and abuse you in the post, then go out on the perimeter and just abuse you the whole game.”
When the Finals begin Thursday night in Los Angeles, the Lakers and Celtics colliding again, Artest will be right in the middle of the tempest. Its where hes always been. At his best when he has an elite scorer to defend, Artest will represent one of the most important keys to the outcome in his matchup with Paul Pierce. It was Pierce who throttled the Lakers in the 2008 Finals, averaging 21.8 points in Bostons six-game triumph. The Lakers had no answer for him then, and so they cautiously embraced Artest last summer, taking the good with the bad because they knew what his kind of defense and ferocity can mean on the championship stage.
Artest embraces the challenge with the same willingness that he has finally summoned to confront his past. Miller was around Artest for the duration of the conference finals as a TNT broadcaster, and now he knows the shame Artest has been carrying around for six years. Chances are good that Bird, one of the greatest Celtics, will turn up at some point during the renewal of this rivalry that defined his career. And suffice it to say, if they cross paths, theyll have something to talk about.
Just as Artest feels ashamed in Birds presence, Bird has a long memory, too. Speaking about Artests strange marriage with the Lakers, Bird has told confidants this season that hes never fel and that hes never misjudged a player that badly, too. And if you know Bird, you know that eats away at him to this day.
“I learned a lot from those days, and regret a lot,” Artest said Sunday, the Lakers last day off before the Finals. “It molded me to be a better teammate.”
And maybe, finally, a champion.
