NBA Insider with Ken Berger

Thanks for checking in with your thoughts on Artest. I see y’all are blowing up Alan’s blog with a big discussion of Ron-Ron becoming a Knick in like 24 hours.

1) I love the fact that you guys are reading my blog and bouncing the Artest item around. That’s how it’s supposed to work. I talk to someone you care about, I tell you what they said. That’s how it works. I get information for you.

2) A line from my days covering the Jets, from a certain silver-haired football coach with the initials BP: “Is LSD back?

Relax, people. Nothing’s going down – yet.

Still, I believe there’s a 50-50 chance that Artest winds up getting traded to the Knicks – if not this summer, then at trade deadline. It just makes too much sense. He’d be the perfect offensive/defensive combination at the 3, would go through a wall for Isiah, and as he stated Tuesday, he’d take the privilege of playing in New York very, very seriously. I think after all he’s been through, he could handle it. Sounds crazy to say about a guy who’s found the trouble he’s found over the years, but I get the impression he wants this to happen in the worst way.

Not just for basketball reasons, but for personal reasons. If you haven't seen the column I wrote in today's paper on Artest, here is is.

And maybe this is me being overly cynical, but all these glowing statements about Artest coming from Kings G.M. Geoff Petrie strike me as a guy talking up a player so he can get more back in a trade. For all his good works lately, Artest has baggage and has been a huge headache at times for the Kings. Petrie knows that Artest will be gone after next season anyway, so why not talk his value up now and try to get something for your trouble?

By the way, I think the same thing is going on with the canonization of Nate Robinson this summer.

But let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves. The fact that the interview with Artest happened in New York is not an indication that a trade is imminent. In fact, when Artest and I spoke on the phone later in the day, he’d already flown back to Cali.

I also spoke with Artest’s agent, Mark Stevens, on Tuesday. This is what he said: “From what I know and understand, Ron is a King and he’s going to be a King. If anything different arrives, we’ll deal with it at that point.”

Here is what we know: Artest badly wants to play in New York, but has decided it’s not his place to request a trade. One thing he understands is loyalty, and he believes that Petrie and the Maloof brothers deserve his loyalty for sticking by him through some troubled times.

We know Isiah has two extra players on the roster and has accumulated some pieces that give him the flexibility to pull off several different types of trades. He has desirable young players to offer – Lee, Balkman, Crawford, Randolph Morris, even N8 – plus a variety of expiring contracts.

Now he waits for things to shake out – not only with Artest, but also with Kobe. Time is on his side.

Will Artest show up at training camp, look around at a collection of talent that won 32 games last season, and lose all his enthusiasm and loyalty for Sac-Town?

Will Kobe show up at training camp, period?

Either one or both could be available in the coming months. Say what you want about Isiah, but he has the right combination of talent and garbage to be at the front of the line in either scenario.

Now, back to vacation. Feel free to keep the discussion going over here and I’ll sift through your comments, answer your questions, and bring you the latest Kobe and Artest updates when I return.

I don't see anyone knocking the door down to carry the blog in my absence. But as promised, I'm back for a brief interruption in what is otherwise supposed to be a week off to bring some Ron Artest news to the table.

A couple other reporters joined me in a sit-down with Ron-Ron at The Palm on 50th between Broadway and 8th this afternoon for an appearance promoting the 17th annual Wheelchair Charities hoops game. This year's event will be Sunday, Sept. 9 at MSG, featuring Artest, Long Islander Mike James, Sam Cassell, Rutgers product Quincy Douby, among others. More players will be announced in the coming weeks.

Artest has been involved in the charity since his high school days at LaSalle, and he now has assumed Mark Jackson's prestigious position of coordinating the event and securing fellow NBA players to attend. The all-star classic has raised more than $1.6 million for patients of Goldwater Memorial Hospital on Roosevelt Island.

All the good stuff from Artest will be in tomorrow's paper, but here's a little preview for you loyal blog fans:

* Artest still hasn't asked the Kings to trade him, but he reiterated that he wouldn't be upset if he got traded to the Knicks. He did point out for the first time that he doesn't think a trade will happen this offseason because, "I don’t think anybody will give me up the way I’ve been working out this summer."

* He believes Zach Randolph and Eddy Curry will be able to co-exist in the paint the way he and Jermaine O'Neal did in Indiana. "If you double Zach, you’ve got Eddy down there and you can’t stop Eddy from dunking," Artest said. "Same thing with Zach."

* If the new-look Celtics play together, they're going to be "a monster," according to Artest. Agreed.

* Artest has spoken with Jamal Crawford, a former teammate of his with the Bulls, this summer, as well as Renaldo Balkman. "He's my boy," Artest said of Balkman. "I told him I wouldn’t trade myself for him."

* Like every other professional athlete whom reporters suspect might say something controversial, Artest had to weigh in on the Michael Vick situation. I thought he handled it well, but you can be the judge when you read what he had to say in tomorrow's paper and online edition. Curious to get your thoughts on how he dealt with the delicate issue if you want to post your comments here.

No reaction yet from Ron Artest to our story and two Web specials on Tuesday. Perhaps he is running for his life from a herd of hippopatamuses. (Herd? Flock? School? Help me out.)

Seriously, a lot of you have posted your comments on the story, Artest's personal account of his Africa trip, and the previous blog entry. Keep 'em coming. In the meantime, I wanted to link to a few other sites that are cranking out Artest chatter.

First, most Kings fans posting here seem numb to Artest and want to see him traded.

This Kings fan blog is pointing out that the most interesting comment he made from a Sac-Town perspective was his line about whether he thinks his teammates on the Kings believe they are championship contenders.

At FanNation, they're dishing about whether Artest should be traded to the Knicks or somewhere else.

Most of these Knick fans seem willing to give Artest the benefit of the doubt, while these guys can't believe David Lee actually plays streetball in the projects.

At RealGM, Knick fans are trying to read between the lines in Artest's interview and also debating how good the Knicks would be if they got him.

If you come across any sites with some good Artest talk or have any thoughts about anything he said, the floor is yours.

By Ken Berger

The connection on his iPhone from Kenya wasn't great, but Ron Artest was so talkative when we spoke Sunday night that we need to test Newsday.com's bandwidth to get it all to you.

Tuesday's newspaper story is a little bit of everything - the news about his suspension, his thoughts about possibly getting traded, his impressions of the Knicks, Zach Randolph, David Lee, and Isiah Thomas, the sense of loyalty he feels toward the Sacramento Kings, and some of the highlights of his trip to Africa with the NBA Players Association to feed 1 million impoverished people.

There's also Artest's personal account of his trip on Newsday.com, and some photos he emailed.

Now, since I've been pushing for the Knicks to try to trade for Artest, it makes sense to me that you'd want to know everything else the Queensbridge native and former St. John's star said that was basketball related. Thanks to technology, here are his comments on a variety of topics I thought you would find interesting:

• His seven-game suspension for pleading no-contest to a domestic violence charge: "I want to apologize to my family for putting myself in the situation to get suspended. I want to apologize to the NBA, the Sacramento Kings, the whole New York City for supporting me so much, and for being in the paper for something negative. I definitely want to apologize to my supporters, too, because I'm not trying to be in the public for anything negative. That's not what I'm trying to do anymore, but unfortunately things happen."

• His public image: "I want kids to really see the goodness in me, not just the bad. There's been enough bad. So I want people to really respect that, and when they do write things, just keep that in mind. I'm not perfect. I might say things and do things, but at the same time, I'm not trying to be some bad dude."

• Whether he could handle playing in New York, where he grew up and starred for St. John's: "I go home a lot. I've never been in any violent trouble, ever. My family basically did everything in the projects that you could do, and I've never adjusted to that negative lifestyle. People see me in New York and I'll be in ghettos, the projects, doing good things for the kids. And you've never seen me getting caught smoking marijuana, DUI, any gun charges. I'm totally capable of playing in any major city - L.A., Miami, Houston, New York City - and at the same time I'm happy to be a Sacramento King. But I'm totally capable of handling anything that comes my way as far as the pressures. I'm not afraid of big media markets. That's why I stayed home at St. John's, because I wasn't afraid of the big media market."

• Whether he still wants to be a Knick, the team he wanted to draft him out of St. John's: "It's not something that really comes across my mind right now at this point. … All the people in New York give me a confidence that no one else could give me because of all the negativity that's been publicized. It's not even the sponsors or the corporate, it's the people that want me to come back."

• His place among the top players in the league: "Every time we play against Kobe, they're putting me on him. When I'm on the offensive end, they put their best defender on me. They're going to put the Kobes on me. Sometimes LeBron will guard me; he's one of the few guys. I'll guard Rip Hamilton, but he won't guard me. So from that point, I'm on the level of any one of the top players in the league."

• His loyalty to the Kings: "The Maloofs, Mama [Colleen] Maloof, she's been a beautiful lady, a beautiful friend to me. All the Maloofs have been good people to me. So that's what the people of New York City don't really see. They only see a player. They see an opportunity for a trade. But it's important that I tell them more so they really see what has to go into all of this."

• His relationship with Kings G.M. Geoff Petrie: "When I talked to Geoff, I talked to him as a friend because he's been a friend to me. But I understand that if Michael Jordan could be run out of Chicago, Ron Artest could be traded from Sacramento. … I understand I could be traded, so it won't make me upset if I'm traded. I won't be mad at Geoff. He'll always be a good friend."

• What would make him demand a trade: "When you're a competitor and you've got to play against a team, you don't think about going to that team. I want to play against San Antonio. I don't want to join forces with them. I want to play against all these teams with the team I've got and I want to win a championship. And that's how I feel. My only thing is, I want people to feel like that around me. If people don't feel like that around me, that we're going to go into this game and win a championship, that's the only thing that makes me upset. That's the only thing that can make me not want to be with a team.

• Whether his teammates in Sacramento believe they are championship contenders: "Well, you know, training camp hasn't even started yet. So you'll pick everybody's brain when you get started. That's a question that I asked last year, and everybody wasn't on board and ready to go try to win this championship, and I was pretty upset about that - that everybody was not like, 'We're actually going to win a championship.' That's how I need to feel. But this is a new season and hopefully people will feel that way."

• What kind of coach he wants to play for: "Being the franchise player is being one of the top players, and I try to give feedback. And if people aren't on board, you just tell your coach, 'Hey, we've got people not on board. I don't think people believe that we can win a championship.' At that point, I think it's up to the coach to instill that in the players. That's something that Isiah is very capable of doing. I think Reggie Theus did it back in college. It's something that would get me frustrated, but it's something that could be challenging. And that's my challenge. And that's a challenge that I'm not afraid to step up to."

• Playing for a team that already has a franchise player: "That's sort of the way it was in Indiana with me and Jermaine [O'Neal]. I didn't have to carry the whole load. We had Jermaine and Steve Jackson and everybody pretty much carried the load. We had Reggie Miller to hit the big threes, and I could pretty much wander around and do my thing off the ball. And it worked for me, too. I had my best season under a situation like that."

• Isiah Thomas: "Isiah's my family. I had my best team season under Rick Carlisle. But after Isiah left, I was pretty upset about that. I wanted to play for Isiah because he brought me in there. I had great times under Rick Carlisle, but I spoke to Isiah after he left Indiana and we talk quite often about things, about non-basketball things. I have a really good relationship with Isiah. I don't have any problems. On the court, Isiah's a monster when he's coaching. He's really intense and he got on my ass quite a few times, but I respect that. I don't mind somebody pushing me to make me better. I don't mind that at all."
  

So Geoff Petrie says he's never heard of Isiah Thomas, much less held trade talks with him about Ron Artest.

Artest says he's never heard of the Knicks or Madison Square Garden, much less asked to be traded there.

I exaggerate, of course, but only to illustrate my point. Don't believe everything you read about the possibility of Artest being traded this summer being dead.

Consider it shelved for a while, but not dead. There are too many factors in favor of the Kings parting with their tempestuous small forward to ignore. The stuff going on in public between Thomas and Petrie? Maybe it really does foreshadow that things won't work out between the Knicks and the Kings. But until I see Artest suit up for the Kings in training camp, I'll consider it little more than posturing by two poker-playing general managers.

Thomas was trying to lowball Artest's market value by allowing it to be leaked that he won't trade David Lee. Petrie responded by essentially stomping his feet and saying, "Oh, yeah? Well I haven't even talked to anyone about trading Ron-Ron and I'm not trading him. So there."

Ron-Ron chimed in yesterday in a poolside interview in Vegas with what Filip Bondy likes to call the "evil Post," saying that he wants to retire as a King. When? Next week, so he can focus on his rap career?

Give the Artest cloud a few weeks to blow over. When the posturing and gamesmanship are over, it'll blow back. If nothing else, the likelihood of Artest being traded will increase dramatically as we approach the February trade deadline. Why? By then, Artest will be able to play the opt-out card that he's claiming now he won't play. Remember: Artest is nothing if not unpredictable. If he decides after a few months that things aren't as rosy in Sacramento as he thinks they are today, he could easily force his way out by threatening to opt out after next season.

Which brings us back to Petrie's statements about not wanting to trade Artest this summer. Being the shrewd G.M. he is, Petrie must realize that he'll get more for Artest now than he'd get in a potential fire sale at the deadline. The Knicks and Heat realize that, too, and will be willing to wait Petrie out. The longer it goes, the lower the price.

Some other things you need to know:
* Chris Webber apparently only wants to play for the Mavericks or Pistons
* Derek Fisher is expected to sign with the Lakers
* The Clippers have emerged as the most likely destination for Steve Francis once he's bought out by the Trail Blazers.
* A Blazers fan site called www.blazersedge.com is touting Channing Frye as a potential quote machine. Nice guy, Channing is, but keep dreaming. Frye generated the comment with the following quote about what he'll bring to Portland: "I bring everything...a little personality, a little leadership, a little shooting, a little defense. I'm a buffet of goodness." Channing's assessment of his own game was pretty accurate. He brings a little of everything, the operative word being "little."

UPDATE: Francis' buyout was completed today, and he's hitting waivers at 12:01 a.m. In seven days he'll be a free agent, and he got more than $30 million of the $33.6 million he was owed. Not bad. So the Knicks' trade for Zach Randolph looks even better from their perspective (they traded only Channing Frye for him), and from Francis' point of view. The Heat, Clippers and Mavericks are the leading destinations for Francis, with the Lakers and Bucks also interested.

The Sacramento Bee has nailed down one of the inevitable offseason developments to come: The Kings will make it a priority – perhaps their biggest priority – to trade Ron Artest this summer.
I’ve been advocating for months that the Knicks should be interested, for a couple of reasons.
First, despite all his baggage, Artest would give them a multidimensional small forward who can score, shoot the three, provide elite defense in the post and on the perimeter, and bring high levels of energy and effort.
The second reason will become obvious once Kings GM Geoff Petrie actually starts shopping Artest: So many teams, including the Knicks, will be afraid of Artest destroying their locker room chemistry that he’ll come cheap. In fact, he’ll come ridiculously cheap for a player of his caliber making the money he’s making: $7.8 million next season with an $8.45 million option in 2008-09.
That’s only slightly more than Dr. Phil money, and whatever team winds up with Artest will need to clear some cap space to add a psychologist to the payroll.
The reasons to be wary of Artest have been well documented, starting with the NBA-record 73-game suspension he earned for setting off the infamous Palace brawl between the Pacers and Pistons in 2004. When he loses his way, Artest can as lethal a nut case as there is in the NBA. That’s why it took the Pacers months to trade him in the brawl’s aftermath. Once they unloaded him to the Kings in January 2006, all they got back was Peja Stojakovic, who wound up signing as a free agent with the Hornets.
I’m told that the Knicks’ interest in Artest, of Queensbridge, is lukewarm at best, stemming from the fact that Isiah Thomas coached him in Indiana and understands first-hand what a headache he can be. As things stand now, Thomas doesn’t seem willing to mess up a young locker room with a force as polarizing as Artest.
But what if Thomas finds out that Artest could be had for a song – or, better yet, simply for the biggest head case on his roster, Nate Robinson? With Mike Bibby’s future in Sacramento uncertain, the Kings will need a point guard. Nate the Flake doesn’t fit Isiah’s style, but he might be able to resurrect his career with fewer constraints on a team out West.
Of course, Artest wouldn’t fill the Knicks’ most important need for a power forward who can defend. And with Kevin Garnett and Jermaine O’Neal both likely to be on the trading block, Thomas should focus first on finding out what it would take to get either one of them.
But as Mick Jagger once sang, you can’t always get what you want. It’s hard to argue that the Knicks wouldn’t be better with Artest joining Eddy Curry in the front court with the power forward position occupied jointly by David Lee and Channing Frye, depending on matchups. If the Warriors have awakened the league to anything this postseason, it’s the idea that you put your best five on the floor and play, instead of getting bogged down in who plays the 3, 4, or 5.
I’ll readily acknowledge one glaring problem with my idea: It would send Quentin Richardson to the bench, unless he moves to shooting guard, which would imperil Isiah’s plans to start Stephon Marbury and Mardy Collins in the backcourt.
My boy Alan Hahn can’t say enough good things about Richardson, and I agree with all of them. But if I were Isiah the president, and I could get Artest for next to nothing, I’d do it and let Isiah the coach figure out how to make it work. Plus, I wouldn’t be dissuaded from gambling on Artest just because of the impact it would have on Richardson. Artest is a gamble from the neck up, while health-wise, Q is a gamble from the neck down.
Artest wouldn’t fix the Knicks. But if Isiah could find a way to coach him, he’d certainly make them better. At these prices, he’d be worth a shot.