Apparently, the Lakers contacted Geoff Petrie this past week inquiring about a trade for Ron Artest. Their offer would be Lamar Odom. But Odom has one year left on his contract at $14,559,000. Artest opted to take his last year with Sacramento at $8,450,000. So the rumor is (Petrie is not talking) that Geoff will insist the Lakers take on Kenny Thomas' two year contract with over $18 mill still to be paid out.
From the Sacramento Bee:
According to a league source, the Lakers already have contacted the Kings regarding Artest and are believed to be offering forward Lamar Odom. As of Tuesday evening, the Kings had not returned the call. They are expected to insist on forward Kenny Thomas and his $18 million of remaining salary (over two seasons) being included in that potential trade. Kings basketball president Geoff Petrie declined comment on whether the Lakers had called.
Funny how the worm turns.
But in all truthfulness, Petrie would have much to explain here in SacTown if he made a trade to help out the Lakers. Chris Webber was in town, at his restaurant to help the Kings with their public signing of their three draft picks this year, and was interviewed this morning on the local sports radio show. His take is that teams should never make trades with teams in their own division because those players traded always have their best games against their former teams. That goes for Odom as well, but Artest is semi-bi-polar. His highs are VERY high.
BTW, he was asked about the game six, 2002 playoff game. He refused to say anything about the officiating until the facts prove the rumors to be true, but promised to say something if and when they are confirmed. He also felt the Kings should have won game seven anyway. He would have liked the Kings to keep that team together for another year, instead of trading him away, because he essentially felt that the Mavericks were the Kings' b*tches and would not have gone to the finals the next year if the Kings had stood in their way with everyone still together.
He also said <this is somewhat odd, I should think> that he still hangs out with most of his teammates from the Kings - he sees them regularly and even travels with them. He went to Slovenia with Scot Pollard at the behest of Vlade a year or two ago. I know players often become friendly off the court, but that team was disbanded a few years ago and several are retired. But even recluse Doug Christie looks them up when he can. Chris is hosting an event this coming weekend to help poor neighborhoods in the area and Vlade and Bobby Jackson are coming to it, along with a ton of current NBA players, including Paul Pierce.
And, um.....he still hates the Lakers. But not to be too upsetting, he hates the Celtics more, being from Detroit.
