Ron Artest Sucks at Offense: Game 2 Evidence

More about Artest's offensive ineptitude below from Langston Whittaker's blog on SLAM:

By far the strangest sequence of Game 2 came with 1:12 to go in the game. Kendrick Perkins had knocked in two free throws to give Boston a 98-90 lead. L.A. inbounded to Artest, who dribbled the ball all the way up the right side of the court (dribbling left-handed, for some reason). With 1:07 to go, Artest paused just outside the three point line and surveyed the floor. Paul Pierce was guarding him, but not too closely, not wanting to foul and stop the clock. Artest signaled up top for Kobe to come to him and get the ball, but Kobe froze, not wanting to run his defender (Ray Allen) into Artest’s space. Andrew Bynum then came toward Artest to set a pick on Pierce, but Artest didn’t wait long enough for the pick, and instead just started dribbling toward the middle of the floor. Pierce bothered him enough to push Artest down to the left block. His dribble still alive, and I suppose suddenly realizing that the Lakers could use a three, Artest turned and dribbled up toward the left elbow. By now the clock was at 1:02, and the Lakers had run 10 seconds off the clock with nobody touching the ball but Artest. The crowd begins screaming, reminding Artest that time is of essence. Artest dribbled out to the three point line on the left wing and picked up his dribble, so Pierce ran up on him, cutting off any open jumper. Artest half-heartedly pump-faked, pivoted back, then forward, and ended up taking a contested three with his foot on the line and 57 seconds left in the game. The shot didn’t come close. The other Lakers players on this play mostly just stood around and watched Artest, as amazed as everyone else at what was unfolding. Hilariously, the shot was such a brick that it bounced over all the Celtic rebounders and to Pau Gasol, who tipped it to Kobe up top, and Kobe immediately drained a 25-footer to cut it to 98-93 with 53 seconds left. But what was Artest doing?

After the game, someone asked Phil Jackson about it, for maybe my favorite sequence of the Finals:

Q: Does Ron get a little lost out there offensively? Is it the stage? Is it the pressure? There was one play towards the end where he ran around for about ten seconds and threw up a three.

PHIL JACKSON: It’s one of the more unusual sequences I’ve ever witnessed. You know, he’s just trying to redeem himself. He’s trying to get himself involved in the game and trying to redeem himself for I think he made a bad pass earlier in the sequence.

Q. But this is a pretty big stage to be doing that at that particular moment.

PHIL JACKSON: Sure, very good observation.

Q. Have you had a conversation with him about whether he needs to go that route?

PHIL JACKSON: Yeah, sure, I’ll have a conversation with him.

Between Games 1 and 2 at one of the media days someone asked Ron Ron about his offense. He said, “Offense is kind of like the lottery for me. Whatever happens, happens.” He paused briefly, glanced around, then asked, “Does that make sense? Is that a good comparison?”

NBAers at The Olympic Club

The Olympic Club is a little organization in San Francisco. It is the oldest athletic club in the US of A and yours truly, The OG Nextian, is a cherished member. For a hefty monthly fee, I enjoy such membership benefits as basketball leagues, the ability to pay for food and drinks at the cafe, access to some sweet golf courses where I can pay to play golf at restricted times, and getting on the distro list for the basketball program. Check out some cool pics of NBAers at The OC!


The guy on the left is one of our all-time basketball greats at the OC. Kevin used to play for the Bucs back in the day and he probably battled Jackson a few times. I think Phil is wearing makeup. He's so LA now.


Mit, the guy on the right, is not in the NBA. But Chris Bosh, the Raptor-like man on the right who plays for The Raptors, is. Mit is a pretty dope scorer in the top level OC League but something tells me that Bosh can still take him.


The OC Basketball Staff all leached on to Kobe.........who of course was wearing his stunna shades. Douche!


Fidel runs the basketball leagues at The OC. He is short. Dirk plays PF for the Dallas Mavericks. He is tall.


A few OC Staff members pose with CP3. His eyes are so dreamy.

Phil Jackson on Kobe in 2006

Bills Simmons' "The Book of Basketball" is a shoddily written rush fest of a book with many pieces of mis-information and typos. But it still produces some good info from other writers that Sportsguy has kept in his NBA coffers for some years and is giving us now when making his points. One of the best parts of "The Book of Basketball" is the evolution of Kobe Bryant as BS ranks him the 15th best player of all time.

In April of 2006 after game 4 of the Suns Series, here is what Phil Jackson said to J.A. Adande of the LA Times:

"Somestimes his needs overwhelm the rest of the ballclub's necessity...as we get into the playoffs, that'll dissipate, because he knows that he's got to put his ego aside and conform to what we have to do if we're going to go anywhere in the playoffs. Any player that take sit on himself to do that (play for himself) knows that he's going against the basic principles of basketball. That's a selfish approach to the game. You know when you're breaking down the team or you're breaking down and doing things individualistic, you're going to have, you know, some unhappy teammates...and he knows these things...intuitively, I have to trust the fact that he's going to come back to that spot and know that the timing's right. The season's over, things have been accomplished, records have been stuck in the books, statistics are all jelled in, now let's go ahead and play basketball as we're supposed to play it."

If you remember, this was the same season that Kobe scored 81 against a washed up Jalen Rose of the Raps. This was also the same season where Kobe refused to shoot in the 4th Quarter of Game 7 vs. The Suns and lost by 25. Remember that the Lakers had a 3-1 series lead.