duncan228
01-31-2010, 01:51 PM
Time for Artest to run wild (http://www.ocregister.com/sports/artest-231839-boston-run.html)
Ding column: Now that Ron Artest's feet are feeling better, his no-holds-barred game isn't far behind.
By Kevin Ding
The Orange County Register
This is the time to be not normal.
We are all afflicted, apparently. The medically approved labels seem to help us sort things out or at least excuse ourselves in the case of “addiction.”
(I only fashion myself a pop psychologist, so feel free to explain to me how Kobe Bryant’s level of obsession for his craft of basketball – described the other day by Andre Iguodala as “mentally insane” – isn’t an official addiction like all the rest that have so conveniently cropped up. Just because he’s good at it?)
In any case, it’s perfectly cool in this generation not to be normal, which is just great for Ron Artest.
When you visualize a whole team of doctors needed to treat Artest, it’s not so far off. He has made a good recovery from his plantar fasciitis, but his hands and fingers need treatment and he is coming off that stomach ailment.
He definitely needed his neurologist after that concussion, and his topper is proudly producing a movie called “Therapy” about his life; it will include actual footage of Artest huddling with his psychologist.
All this is meant to say that Artest has come through as abnormally as we all thought coming into this Lakers season. What he hasn’t been is as abnormally intimidating on the court.
It’s a perfect time to bring some of the wild thing Sunday in Artest’s introduction to the Lakers-Celtics rivalry.
“After the game,” Artest promised, “people will know what I bring.”
The primary fear with Artest joining the Lakers was that he would be a distraction. Instead, he has been too understated – often uninvolved on offense and sometimes a wallflower on defense instead of a party-crashing animal.
Artest chalks that up to his foot problems, which have just now cleared up. It was his own fault that the plantar fasciitis got as bad as it did. Artest developed the problem last season, when he played through two torn ligaments in his ankle, but just let it ease up in the offseason instead of addressing it.
So it came back this season with a vengeance, yet he didn’t even divulge the problem to Lakers trainers until after the Jan. 8 game in Portland. He had a shoulder problem in training camp that he also kept quiet.
In that sense, Artest isn’t like this generation that seeks a diagnosis for everything. Artest is old-school in just trying to ignore physical problems rather than create excuses.
He takes immense pride in that attitude, but it runs contrary to what he has learned to do with his head. He has mental issues he knows he needs to acknowledge; he’d be better off addressing his physical health responsibly, too – the way new teammates Derek Fisher and Bryant do.
Artest does realize that pushing through on his bad ankle last season was “dumb on my part.” And he does now thank the Lakers’ training staff for bringing him back from a scary place where he would bow his head to stare down at his aching feet and wonder: “Is it fixable? Am I just getting old?”
Yet Artest, 30, said he is now “able to play hard. I feel like almost the old Ron. I’m like, ‘Wow, I might be able to get it back.’ ” Just as he contained Joe Johnson and Kevin Durant in consecutive games early this season, he did the tough task on Danny Granger and Andre Iguodala the past two games.
That’s why Artest believes his best with the Lakers is yet to come.
It feels like every column I write about Artest this season is a step for him, showing some adversity and some progress – just the way it is in each chapter of a book about a really good character.
Artest is definitely a character. To make that evaluation does not require a medical degree.
He is also a player with Paul Pierce’s size, Kevin Garnett’s defense and Ray Allen’s touch.
Now if Artest is ready to unleash the extra something that makes him special – something wild – the Lakers are more than ready to watch the other team quiver upon seeing it and feeling it.
Artest can’t wait. He said, “It was boring out there” while limited in physical activity by his feet.
And for Lakers fans who haven’t seen the full bloom of this dark rose, what is it you do, exactly, Ron?
“Cause havoc with the game.”
Ding column: Now that Ron Artest's feet are feeling better, his no-holds-barred game isn't far behind.
By Kevin Ding
The Orange County Register
This is the time to be not normal.
We are all afflicted, apparently. The medically approved labels seem to help us sort things out or at least excuse ourselves in the case of “addiction.”
(I only fashion myself a pop psychologist, so feel free to explain to me how Kobe Bryant’s level of obsession for his craft of basketball – described the other day by Andre Iguodala as “mentally insane” – isn’t an official addiction like all the rest that have so conveniently cropped up. Just because he’s good at it?)
In any case, it’s perfectly cool in this generation not to be normal, which is just great for Ron Artest.
When you visualize a whole team of doctors needed to treat Artest, it’s not so far off. He has made a good recovery from his plantar fasciitis, but his hands and fingers need treatment and he is coming off that stomach ailment.
He definitely needed his neurologist after that concussion, and his topper is proudly producing a movie called “Therapy” about his life; it will include actual footage of Artest huddling with his psychologist.
All this is meant to say that Artest has come through as abnormally as we all thought coming into this Lakers season. What he hasn’t been is as abnormally intimidating on the court.
It’s a perfect time to bring some of the wild thing Sunday in Artest’s introduction to the Lakers-Celtics rivalry.
“After the game,” Artest promised, “people will know what I bring.”
The primary fear with Artest joining the Lakers was that he would be a distraction. Instead, he has been too understated – often uninvolved on offense and sometimes a wallflower on defense instead of a party-crashing animal.
Artest chalks that up to his foot problems, which have just now cleared up. It was his own fault that the plantar fasciitis got as bad as it did. Artest developed the problem last season, when he played through two torn ligaments in his ankle, but just let it ease up in the offseason instead of addressing it.
So it came back this season with a vengeance, yet he didn’t even divulge the problem to Lakers trainers until after the Jan. 8 game in Portland. He had a shoulder problem in training camp that he also kept quiet.
In that sense, Artest isn’t like this generation that seeks a diagnosis for everything. Artest is old-school in just trying to ignore physical problems rather than create excuses.
He takes immense pride in that attitude, but it runs contrary to what he has learned to do with his head. He has mental issues he knows he needs to acknowledge; he’d be better off addressing his physical health responsibly, too – the way new teammates Derek Fisher and Bryant do.
Artest does realize that pushing through on his bad ankle last season was “dumb on my part.” And he does now thank the Lakers’ training staff for bringing him back from a scary place where he would bow his head to stare down at his aching feet and wonder: “Is it fixable? Am I just getting old?”
Yet Artest, 30, said he is now “able to play hard. I feel like almost the old Ron. I’m like, ‘Wow, I might be able to get it back.’ ” Just as he contained Joe Johnson and Kevin Durant in consecutive games early this season, he did the tough task on Danny Granger and Andre Iguodala the past two games.
That’s why Artest believes his best with the Lakers is yet to come.
It feels like every column I write about Artest this season is a step for him, showing some adversity and some progress – just the way it is in each chapter of a book about a really good character.
Artest is definitely a character. To make that evaluation does not require a medical degree.
He is also a player with Paul Pierce’s size, Kevin Garnett’s defense and Ray Allen’s touch.
Now if Artest is ready to unleash the extra something that makes him special – something wild – the Lakers are more than ready to watch the other team quiver upon seeing it and feeling it.
Artest can’t wait. He said, “It was boring out there” while limited in physical activity by his feet.
And for Lakers fans who haven’t seen the full bloom of this dark rose, what is it you do, exactly, Ron?
“Cause havoc with the game.”