Artest is as much of a fighter as Melo is. He just screams and yells and plays physical, but when a guy with some balls faces him down, he backs away . . . or goes and lays down on the scorer's table where three of his teammates can guard him. I watched Ron Ron back down from Harping this year, and Harp is smaller. Artest is the master of the "c'mon bro hold me back hold me back or I'm gonna kill this guy okay bro he's getting closer pull me back a little faster" move. Whereas, Melo is the master of "dude's bros be holdin' him back, think I'll jack the sucka to show people how much of a bad ass I am what do you mean that makes me a punk bitch foo?" move.
BTW, Ted, I hope you do know that Artest flat out can NOT confront anyone on the court ever again if he wants to continue playing in the NBA. That little fact DID cross your mind in his confrontation with Harpring, I am sure.
Right?
Poor misunderstood Ron Artest.
Punched a fan.
Now he can't be man.
Personally, I have a theory. He went after the pencil-necked Detroit fan instead of the obviously knuckle-headed tough guy who actually threw the beer because he knew the little guy probably wouldn't fight back.
JoMal, I understand what it's like to have to cheer for a total dickhead. We had Karl Malone on our team. And when he's playing well, you like the fact that he's a dirty swine on the court. You like it when he splays open Isiah's forehead and knocks out David Robinson (for some reason, the nicest NBA player I never liked), but when's he's gone to another team for a title shot because he didn't have the stuff to bring one to your team, you won't like him as much.
Ron Artest is a chest-beating, taunt-screaming, fight-fearing punk. The fact that he can NOT get into another confrontation is moot (and his own fault by the way); he ran from both Boozer and Harpring on the same night. WUSS.
And, Ted, I also understand homerism just fine and how you can be proud of your players for their on-court antics, while they play for
YOUR team. But the reputation of the Jazz - in the post-Malone era, that is - of being thugs and deviants who like to inflict pain rather then basketball strategy on opponents to instill fear in them makes your Artest comments something like the pot calling the kettle black. From the point of view of some other team, I could let it slide, but the Jazz have never had a reputation of being soft and neither has Artest, regardless of your rather lame attempts to imply he is when playing the likes of Matt Harpring (!) or Carlos Boozer.
Plus to what end was the result? The next game played by the Jazz against the Kings, they lost by 13 points and could not bully the likes of Quincy Douby or John Salmons, neither of whom come close to the apparent awe-inspiring drivel you think Ron Artest deserves from some sort of face-down by not one, according to you, but TWO Utah players, one of whom is much bigger and plays a different position then Artest.
They tried to provoke Artest in that game played in Utah, but clearly had no thoughts of duplicating that once on the road against the Kings in Sacramento. Why, if it was so affective at home, would they, in your words, clearly WUSS out, on the road? Because
THAT is the definition of cowards, not what Artest did in a hostile environment, both in Detroit and Salt Lake City. You can call what he did in the Motor City plenty of adjectives, and
THEY ARE ALL DESERVED, including stupid, thoughtless, destructive, and certainly long-lasting in his case for the rest of his NBA career, but implying he could not take on either Harpring or Boozer,
one-on-one, and not, as you implied, ganged up on, is short-sighted, to be polite about it.
Artest will carry the dregs of his mistakes the rest of his life as well as for the rest of his NBA career, but watching him showing any kind of restraint, under the circumstances he faced on the road in Utah, and then essentially mocking him for doing it, and from a fan of the most embarassing thug team of our era, is the height of hypocracy and persecution.
And if the Jazz can not or will not play to the same thug levels on the road, gutless as well.
