Hey JoMal!
I love it..."more serious than just a few slaps"!
Man, I need to move to Sacramento...they know how to deal with a woman there!
_RB
Shaq #1
What do you mean by "how to deal with a woman"? My wife tends to whack me around a bit, but "just a few slaps" only when the neighbors are watching. Does that make me jaded?
That noted icon to womanhood, Sean Connery, admits to whacking his women into place once in a while, but somehow has never been arrested for it. I guess Artest is no Sean Connery, or more to the point, his significant other is no woman who would date Connery.
There is some very disturbing recent history to this story - and some not so recent. Early in his career, at the start of the famed Ron-Ron criminal record sheet, he was arrested on domestic abuse charges, so this is not new to their relationship. Back in the pre-season, his wife called the police to say Ron was vandalizing his own home. She did not want to press charges; just wanted it to be "on-the-record". In January, the dog abuse story broke and at least one dog owned by Artest was confiscated by animal control. Neighbors of his in the elite neighborhood where the Artests live have reported seeing confrontations between them as they jogged by their house, or have seen it in more public areas around the area.
Oh, and if anyone is wondering, yes, they have kids living at home during all of this.
The only problems that have surfaced regarding the Kings has been Artest complaining to the media about how many shots Musselman runs for him at times. He thinks more of the offense should be handed over to him. Talk about delusional.
The talk radio this morning - always a good source of how other locals view things - tend to be of the "I told you so", variety. That would include me, I guess, as I had definite negative feelings prior to the Peja/Artest trade, but also felt he was trying hard to fit in and be a good team member for the organization after I saw how he conducted himself up to earlier this season.
Some of the talk has been oddly supportive of Artest, but stupid, like what he did was no worse then Musselman's DUI last year, and that clearly this is a racial thing, since Ron being an African American and Musselman being white that our society is coming down unfairly on Artest while Eric got a slap on the wrist for his actions. Thing is, Eric Musselman as far as we know, only made the one mistake, and I personnally know three people who have DUI's who got first time slaps similar to his, while domestic abuse accusations just tend to bring out the longer court trials and ramifications from the law.
And, um, I am not sure what image these call-in people are trying to convey, but the thought crossed my mind that they feel black people all tend to suffer domestic abuse, so what is the big deal? They should cut Artest some slack for it. Very disturbing.
Another thing. Since these things are the "public" accusations we have heard about. How much more have Petrie and the Maloofs kept hidden from the public in the mean time? You have to think there has been more high maintennance issues that have come up that we do not know about.
I also have been wondering just how Kevin Martin feels at the moment. Earlier in the day, Musselman told Kevin that he had been named the Player of the Week in the Western Conference for his recent play. That information sort of got buried by the Artest debacle.
