REVENGE.

Holy QUEENS BRIDGE, what a game!

Up by 3 with under a minute remaining in the game Ron Artest hoisted up an ill-advised shot that could have otherwise been used to burn another 24 seconds. The Suns eventually take advantage of this lapse as Jason Richardson banked in a 3-pointer to tie the game up with 3.5 seconds to spare, a lucky shot that seemingly put the game into overtime.

Now, win or lose the microscope would be focused on Artest. What was he thinking?  He put the Lakers in a predicament that even had Phil “Zen Master” Jackson questioning his decision to leave him in.  Lucky for him he had Black Mamba and his 6 game-winners this season to bail him out, number 24 was made for this stuff. Or so we thought..

With 3.5 seconds left, Odom in bounded the ball to Bryant, who with 4 hands in his face still managed to get the shot off, it looked straight, but fell short—AIR BALL.  At this point my blood is boiling, the beer I’ve drank has already evaporated from my body through the power of anger and excitement.  And there is only one person on earth I could blame that on.  That person happened to be on the receiving end of the air-ball.  Artest, in ninja like fashion, simply grabs the miss, turns around and banks it in for the game winner.  Giving the Suns and the rest of his doubters a big hypothetical F*ck You!

WOW.

Redemption!

But still Ron, why?

There is no other player on the team that gets me more nervous handling the ball than Ron-Ron, he’s as graceful as a gorilla that’s trippin’ on bad acid.  Powerful, yet questionable.  So for him to shoot that 3-pointer was almost expected, yet still very shocking.

Any other player on the Lakers would have known to hold the ball, yes even wonderboy Sasha Vukavikjichechkx would’ve known better—okay bad example, EVEN the fans screaming, “NOOOOO!” would have known better.  Not Ron however, Artest is different, crazy-different, charge into the stands different.

And though the infamous Palace brawl in which he charged into the stands after a fan threw beer at him may be behind him now, the same logic still seems to run him.  He’s an enigma.  The only thing you can expect is to not know what to expect from him.

But you don’t need to understand his logic to understand Artest, because frankly, I don’t think Artest understands Artest.

Case in point, his post-game interview with equally crazy Craig
Sager, in this collision of mass awesomeness, Craig asks Artest,
“what were you thinking when put up that shot when you guys
had the chance to run out the clock?”  Artest’s Response?  “Well
you know, just play basketball.  I mean there’s a point in time
where I shot 40% from the 3.  I gotta play you know, still try to
get to the hole.”

JUST PLAY BASKETBALL?  WE ALMOST LOST BECAUSE YOU JUST WANTED TO PLAY BASKETBALL!?  Okay, maybe if we re-phrase the question we can get a better explanation.

Craig then re-phrases the question and says, “that’s the way
you keep talking about playing in the playground, but here
in the NBA there’s 24 second clock, you could of run it out”

What do you have to say about that Ron?

“you still gotta play, still gotta, well you could of run it
out, but you still gotta play basketball.  I try to break
they back a little bit, that’s how we play defense..but still
you gotta play basketball.”

STILL GOTTA PLAY! OKAY GOT IT. Good enough Ron, just don’t let it happen again. Please?

Thanks for the near heart attack, you owe me a beer.