Ron Artest Goes Hollywood: A Lakers Necessity

(Photo by Stephen Dunn/Getty Images)

A few years ago, I would’ve ignored Ron Artest. Now, he is an archetype of how a jeopardous and troubling personality transforms, building a reinforced sphere amid title runs, not to mention the nightmarish upheaval he presented to other teams, including the Los Angeles Lakers.

Once, Artest was the most villainous player to roam into Hollywood, but now he’s lovable and a vibrant necessity in the town where stars reside.

Artest’s sudden arrival into a town of bred champs shouldn’t come as a surprise. And now, instead of classifying Artest as NBA’s thug, it is simple to forget his infamous reputation and refer to him as one of NBA’s best defenders, if not the best in the league currently.

Meaning he must be treated as a good citizen and as a virtuous competitor that is unveiling whenever his temper doesn’t flare into entropy and divide a harmonized team.

However, he’s abounded to help the Lakers secure a back-to-back. Over the course of his poisonous mood changes in an infamous past, he has mellowed into a respectful competitor, pestering and intimidating opponents.

The Lakers exactly know what type of player they are adding to their natural gifted family. Before, it was enigmatic to tell if Artest was a risk or a cure for establishing clarity among an NBA team.

But now, he’s not abound to sabotage chemistry, and has developed into a top-market player for the Lakers, courtesy of a genius measure by owner Jerry Buss to agree in principal with Artest on a multiyear deal at roughly $18.7 million over three years or $33.5 million over five years, base on whichever contracts suits Artest.

If he reaches an agreement on the five-year deal, it will include a player option on the fifth season. But if the Lakers rebuff offering a five-year deal, then Artest will have to settle for a three-year deal and will become a free-agent in 2012.      

For many, it’s a surprise that the Lakers have reached verbal agreements with Artest, until July 8 when players can officially sign new contracts. Next season, Artest will wear a Lakers’ uniform, joining his postseason antagonist Kobe Bryant and will now stand in someone else’s face.

Not long ago, Artest was a pest, getting in a face-to-face dispute with Kobe at midcourt.

Non-stop trash-talking described the series, and familiarized the league’s toughest players. They are competitive and good friends who assemble a blend for an ideal Hollywood story, though their emotions broiled into facial trash-talking and back-and-forth exchange of words.

Being ambitious dictates emotions, especially in the midst of seeking a title as they were attempting to win it for their teams.

Fortunately, it turned out the Lakers were more dynamic and consisted of sturdy depth more than the Rockets. By parlaying Artest, it cultivates powerful depth that gives the Lakers legitimate changes of duplicating triumph for a second straight season. For a few seasons, Artest has being poised about accompanying with the Lakers.

Lobbying and agreeing happened in perfect timing, on a day Trevor Ariza agreed on a multiyear deal with Houston. Similar to Artest, Ariza was arguably the Lakers top defender, and the one play talked about greatly was the steal of Chauncey Billups’ inbound pass against Denver in the Western Conference Finals.

The Lakers are reluctant to negotiate further with Ariza, but are willing to add the well-experienced defensive forward whose bad posture has being forgotten as last season was his breakout season, producing 17.1 points, 5.2 rebounds and 3.3 assists.

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