Player Movement Thread (Was Free Agency Thread)

[TheGuiltyParty]

Yao: Hopefully, [Artest isn't] fighting anymore and going after a guy in the stands.

Artest: If you go back to the brawl, that's a culture issue right there. Somebody was disrespecting me, so he's got to understand where I'm coming from. People that know me know that Ron Artest never changed.

That comment alone has got to make David Stern's head explode. What I'm taking from this is is that if Ron Artest had to re-do the brawl all over... he would.

[jemagee]

Oooooh....selective quoting to make Ron look bad without taking into account everything Yao said, very espn like...impressive

"For some reason, I like (Artest)," Yao said. "Because in the games we play against him, I hate him.

"When I text messaged with Luis (Scola), we talked about team chemistry. That's only what worries us.

"We worry about the new attitude to the team. We are adding talent to the team and we need that, but building team chemistry is important. This is not bad. I don't mean he is not welcome to Houston. But a new player always needs some time.

"Also, he was the biggest part of a team in Sacramento. He was a star player. We need more chemistry and more communication.

"There's worry. Obviously, yes. We will think about it, of course. Hopefully, he's not fighting anymore and going after a guy in the stands.

"I haven't talked to Ron yet, so it's hard to say. I have to find a way to talk to him and see what we can do as a basketball team. He has a history. But we know he is a physical player. He is a good player. He really can help us. And Ron is on a contract year, too.

"I think Ron Artest is a good player if coach (Rick) Adelman can control the team well."

Kermit Washington says

When we opened the clinic four years ago, the National Basketball Players' Association came over with 50,000 dollars worth of medicine. So it really helped kick-start our clinic. And Ron was one of the guys, along with Maurice Evans, Theo Ratliff and Etan Thomas. Ron Artest was probably one of the most wonderful people we have brought over. All of them are wonderful, but Ron just went out of his way. Not only did he pay for a lab in our clinic, he paid for a doctor to go over this summer. He paid for two weeks, paid for food, paid for a place to stay. Ron Artest--wonderful guy. You see him in the context of basketball; he's a warrior when it comes to basketball. Now, I have to admit, his attention span is not that long and he's not interested in some things, so you have to understand and learn how to work with him. But he's a very, very giving person. All of us who worked with him--if he likes you and he respects you, you can't get a better friend than Ron Artest.

[tk76-]

Maybe Ron Ron will turn his life around like Kermit did after breaking Rudy's face. 

[Derek Bodner]

Oooooh....selective quoting to make Ron look bad without taking into account everything Yao said, very espn like...impressive

But how is the selective quote taken out of context?

A selective quote IMO is only poor reporting if by taking that small portion, it takes what he said out of context.  I don't see that here.

[TheGuiltyParty]

I didn't take anything out of context. I took a quote from Yao and posted Artest's response to that specific quote.

[Skates]

I would have felt much better if Artest was going there as a patient of the clinic.  It's nice of him to donate money and his minimal attention span to help others, but no one ever said the guy was a mean or tight with his money, just plain freaking scary crazy.

I thought the Houston Chronicle did a nice job of summing this up:

If Tracy McGrady or Yao Ming gets hurt ? and history says they will ? the Rockets finally have a third cornerstone player to take up the slack.

Give Rockets general manager Daryl Morey credit for not standing pat. The Rockets won 55 games and extended Utah to six games in the playoffs despite Yao?s missing the final 33 contests.

Had Morey left the core group together, had Yao and McGrady finally stayed on the court for an entire season, the Rockets would have won 60-plus games and gotten into the second round of the playoffs.

Some general managers would have been thrilled with 60 victories. Why fix what?s not broken?

When the Rockets put Yao and McGrady together four years ago, they spoke of winning a championship. This trade tells you those weren?t just words.

Morey didn?t believe this core group was good enough to win in the playoffs without another impact player. To make dramatic changes to a team that?s already successful is among the hardest things a general manager will ever do.

Morey will make this trade knowing the risks, knowing it could blow up in his face. Yet he decided that doing something was better than doing nothing. Swing for the fences, baby.

Artest wasn?t his first choice. Morey flew to Southern California hoping for a face-to-face meeting with Corey Maggette. He inquired about Mike Miller, Josh Childress, Mickael Pietrus, Carlos Delfino and Ramonas Siskauskas.

The Sacramento Kings originally told him Artest wasn?t available. Then they changed their mind.

That?s when the Rockets were forced to have a tough conversation. To trade for a Ron Artest is to flirt with trouble.

It?s also one of those trades in which a franchise reveals its values. What do the Rockets stand for? To win at any price? To focus on the bottom line and throw character out the window?

Artest has been suspended 10 times for a variety of incidents. He has been accused of domestic violence three times.

His behavior through the years has ranged from bizarre to frightening. Attacking a fan. Neglecting an animal. An assortment of other tantrums, obscene gestures, etc.

Rick Adelman coached Artest for 40 games two seasons ago, so he certainly signed off on the deal. Adelman had problems with Artest, too, but they eventually came to a truce that worked.

?Rick feels he can reach him,? a source said.

Along the way, Artest came to respect Adelman in a way he seems not to respect others.

The Rockets know there?ll be problems. There?ll be nights when Artest simply refuses to run the offense. There?ll be nights when his temper gets the best of him.

Those are the nights Adelman?s patience will be tested. In the end, though, those were small issues compared to the real baggage Artest brings.

The Rockets say they agonized over the decision, weighed it all, took the final decision to team owner Leslie Alexander.

In the end, Morey and Adelman convinced Alexander that Artest was worth the risk.

?You?ve got to take a calculated gamble sometimes,? a source said.

Someone who spoke to Artest recently found him to be ?really angry.?

About what?

?Everything. I just don?t know if he?s capable of conforming. I?m not even sure he wants to.?

Some will say Artest will be on his best behavior because he?s in the final year of his contract. That thinking assumes Artest is capable of thinking logically.

If nothing else, it certainly makes the Rockets more interesting. They?re also tougher and, from a basketball standpoint, smarter.

If the franchise somehow seems diminished, the Rockets understand. They?re as uncomfortable with some things about Artest as you may be.

[jemagee]

Oooooh....selective quoting to make Ron look bad without taking into account everything Yao said, very espn like...impressive

But how is the selective quote taken out of context?

A selective quote IMO is only poor reporting if by taking that small portion, it takes what he said out of context.  I don't see that here.

Of course you don't, but that's to be expected.

Yao said a lot about Ron coming to Houston and he chose one quote from a whole litany of them, to me that's selective because it presents a different stance than Yao (to me) took, because to me it's a confrontational stance Yao took, implying it momst likely won't work out before even showing up to training camp.

The interesting thing I read today was that artest was like the 5th or 6th choice on Morey's wish list he just kept striking out with other options...reeks of a desperate man

[TheGuiltyParty]

I didn't imply the two won't work together.... what I was doing was showing Artest's insane comment about the Brawl and why he (Artest) even made that comment.

I'm tired of explaining myself about this... NEXT!

[jemagee]

Well then why did you need to include any comments from Yao at all to make your point?

[TheGuiltyParty]

Because the Artest comment was a direct response to the Yao's comment about the brawl.

You are brutal... seriously.... BRUTAL!

[jemagee]

Because the Artest comment was a direct response to the Yao's comment about the brawl.

You are brutal... seriously.... BRUTAL!

If you say so, usually the response comes second, not first

[TheGuiltyParty]

If you say so, usually the response comes second, not first

Yao: Hopefully, [Artest isn't] fighting anymore and going after a guy in the stands.

Artest: If you go back to the brawl, that's a culture issue right there. Somebody was disrespecting me, so he's got to understand where I'm coming from. People that know me know that Ron Artest never changed.

That comment alone has got to make David Stern's head explode. What I'm taking from this is is that if Ron Artest had to re-do the brawl all over... he would.

You do see why I think you're a jackass today, right? Yao makes a remark... and Artest's response comes second.

[tk76-]

Here's more from that same interview with the NBA's favorite "cutural" Attach?:

"I understand what Yao said, but I'm still ghetto," Artest said, according to the report. "That's not going to change. I'm never going to change my culture. Yao has played with a lot of black players, but I don't think he's ever played with a black player that really represents his culture as much as I represent my culture. Once Yao Ming gets to know me, he'll understand what I'm about.

"If you go back to the brawl, that's a culture issue right there. Somebody was disrespecting me, so he's got to understand where I'm coming from. People that know me know that Ron Artest never changed."

Via ESPN

It's pathetic to here him using his "culture" as a crutch.  Listening to Hip Hop music, dressing a certain way is culture.  Even sticking by your childhood friends can be thrown into it.  I'd say A.I. sometimes get stereotyped as a bad person because of his "Hip Hop" culture.  Artest just uses it as a crutch.

He is paid 100K per game to represent his team.  That includes being enough of a man to ignore even the worst instigation from fans (and being hit by a water bottle is pretty bad.)  I'm sure he could have gone to near the stands and pointed to the guy so that security arrested him- but nobody'd "culture" makes them go and start randomly fighting people in the crowd. 

When the same thing has happened at hockey games(minor league I think) is that because of some sort of Canadian Mountie Cred?

He's just hiding behind his childhood because he never had to grow up- and probably basketball has let him get away with that more than his "culture", because with his personality I would guess that he is lucky to have basketball, because his behavior likely would have had him killed by now.

Do you think Artest would have issues with Yao because he is a star who is Chinese? How has he done with non-american teammates?  I think he is supposedly generally well liked by his teammates?

[Skates]

Here's more from that same interview with the NBA's favorite "cutural" Attach?:

"I understand what Yao said, but I'm still ghetto," Artest said, according to the report. "That's not going to change. I'm never going to change my culture. Yao has played with a lot of black players, but I don't think he's ever played with a black player that really represents his culture as much as I represent my culture. Once Yao Ming gets to know me, he'll understand what I'm about.

"If you go back to the brawl, that's a culture issue right there. Somebody was disrespecting me, so he's got to understand where I'm coming from. People that know me know that Ron Artest never changed."

Via ESPN

It's pathetic to here him using his "culture" as a crutch.  Listening to Hip Hop music, dressing a certain way is culture.  Even sticking by your childhood friends can be thrown into it.  I'd say A.I. sometimes get stereotyped as a bad person because of his "Hip Hop" culture.  Artest just uses it as a crutch.

He is paid 100K per game to represent his team.  That includes being enough of a man to ignore even the worst instigation from fans (and being hit by a water bottle is pretty bad.)  I'm sure he could have gone to near the stands and pointed to the guy so that security arrested him- but nobody'd "culture" makes them go and start randomly fighting people in the crowd. 

When the same thing has happened at hockey games(minor league I think) is that because of some sort of Canadian Mountie Cred?

He's just hiding behind his childhood because he never had to grow up- and probably basketball has let him get away with that more than his "culture", because with his personality I would guess that he is lucky to have basketball, because his behavior likely would have had him killed by now.

Do you think Artest would have issues with Yao because he is a star who is Chinese? How has he done with non-american teammates?  I think he is supposedly generally well liked by his teammates?

The cultural angle is interesting in the Ron-Ron/Yao situation, although not in the way Artest presents it.  Yao comes from a culture where conformity is pretty much official policy and Yao is anything but the free spirit that Yi supposedly is.  Whether Artest is representing the ghetto culture as he claims, or the Martian culture which is probably closer to the truth, he is certainly a non-conformist by any standard.  What will ahppen when the seven and a half foot, 300+ pound immovable (mainly because his leg or foot is always broken) object teams up with the irresistably insane force?  Sounds like the makings of a cheesy Harry Hamlin Clash of the Titans remake.

[TheGuiltyParty]

What will ahppen when the seven and a half foot, 300+ pound immovable (mainly because his leg or foot is always broken) object teams up with the irresistably insane force?  Sounds like the makings of a cheesy Harry Hamlin Clash of the Titans remake.

Hmmm... it sounds to me as though you, like everyone else, has Dark Knight Fever.

You just couldn't let me go could you? This is what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object. You truly are incorruptible aren't you? You won't kill me out of some misplaced sense of self-righteousness, and I won't kill you, because you're just too much fun. I think you and I are destined to do this forever.