Ron Artest: "Dancing with the Stars" Future Not as Bright as New Hairstyle
We know that Ron Artest is a great basketball player. We've seen him effectively shut down some of the best players in the league.
What goes into playing good defense in the NBA? Well, good footwork is a must. So, you would think that a person with good footwork could take that to the dance floor.
Well, it turns out that the footwork used to shot down the likes of Paul Pierce and LeBron James doesn't quite translate to the dance floor.
After seeing Artest's, or Metta World Peace's, performance on the opening night of Dancing with the Stars, it's hard to imagine that his future is terribly bright.
His score of 14 was not only the lowest of the night, but it fell just short of his career average of 14.8 points per game. If that's not an omen that his career is on the basketball court and not the dance floor, I don't know what is.
On the plus side, Artest has done a lot to rehab his image in the seven years that have passed since the infamous "Malice in the Palace." To that end, Artest should be commended. He's made a lot of steps towards rehabbing that image and his Dancing with the Stars appearance will only help expose him to a demographic that only knows him for what happened in Detroit in 2004.
Artest is not a bad person. Whether he’s a good dancer or not is really irrelevant. I can’t say that the performance with Peta Murgatroyd was especially impressive, but what does it really matter?
Yes, other professional athletes have done very well on Dancing with the Stars, but it doesn’t hurt Artest’s overall image that he’s not off to a good start.
What should we, as sports fans, really care about with Artest?
Is he showing himself to be a good, more reliable person? Unquestionably, yes, he is. Is he still performing on the court at a high level? Well nobody is right now, but Artest is certainly not a liability there.
After seeing his performance on Monday night, it’s not likely that we’ll be seeing much of the man formerly known as Ron Artest on Dancing with the Stars. But, who really cares?
