Knowing what we know, would you want Artest on your team?

Im going to preface this poll and my response with the following, because I have obviously been very vocal about this whole incident:

I am old school NBA in that, while I am all for players being individuals with personality, I am a bigger fan of the game rather than any indivdual player. That being said, I have become very disallusioned with the NBA the past few seasons. I hate that the zone defense has essentially seemed to eliminate alot of offensive creativity and I hate that the NBA keeps changing the rules to mask and/or attempt to fix the perceived problems with the league. Most imporantly, I hate that so many individuals are taking away from the few things left that are still good in the NBA.

The last thing this league needs right now is a black eye and negative attention. Instead of talking about how fun the offenses of Dallas, Phoenix and Sacramento are to watch, we once again are talking about a guys like Artest.

I hate what the NBA is becoming. While I stop short of admitting a full blown bias, I can admit that I don't like Arest, just like I have never liked JR Rider, Raseed Wallace, Dennis Rodman and Vernon Maxwell (which is hard for me to say since I am a hardcore Rockets fan). I just have a hard time rooting for someone who does well on the court with their play, when they have such a bad attitude on the court or away from it. Im past the point in my life where I look at athletes as heros, but still find great solace in rooting for someone to do well, not only because they help my team, but because they are a good person who deserves the success and admiration that they otherwise wouldn't receive if their team was losing.

The bottom line with me is, and overall, I feel its just sad that the NBA has to now concentrate their efforts on controling individual behavior, rather than fixing the problems that are making the NBA an unwatchable product.

Now, onto Artest. I believe in 2nd chances, and I even believe in 3rd, 4th and 5th chances. But do I want him on my team?

I say no. Before Friday night, I might have taken a flyer on him for pennies on the dollar, and a heavily incentive laden contract to where his antics wouldn't hurt the team's wiggle room, as far as roster spots, even if he hurt the team's on the court peformance (i.e. make it to wear you could discard him without taking a huge loss money wise or personnel wise).

First, AFTER Friday night, I feel the guy is just too much of a liability. His actions (and yes, the fans deserve blame, but Artest's lack of self control was the ignitor of the riot) have now proven they have the ability to affect the on the court peformance of his teamates, as well as their salaries.

Second, I feel its hard to build and maintain team chemistry you don't know, day to day, if he is going to be able to play the next game. After this incident, Artest will have the shortest leash of all time and that leash, fair or not, is going to have a demonstrative affect on how he plays the game. The next time Artest loses it, and IMO, thats when and not if, then the NBA is going to come down even harder on him and will continue to do so until he stops with his antics or finds the ability to control himself like the rest of the NBA.

I keep wondering how Pacer fans will feel (once they get over the urge to blame Wallace for Artest going into the stands)?

If he was on the Rockets, and he got suspended for the season, and T-Mac and JJ got suspended for 1/3 of the season, would we be willing to welcome him back with open arms, like some of us are willing to welcome him in a trade? The grass is always greener on the other side I guess.

Anyway, I'd rather lose with good people on the court, than win with bad ones. Winning isn't everything to me, feeling good about the people I root for, win or lose, is.

So to answer my own poll, I say no. I don't touch him with a ten foot poll. Artest is a great player, and forgetting about his antics, he is fun to watch (I like good man to man defense). His whole act isn't though.

He deserves a 6th chance or 7th chance, I just hope thats not with my team.

 

Oh and I am reminded of the time that San Antonio gave away Dennis Rodman for essentially nothing (I believe it was Will Perdue) because they finally tired of his antics.

 

Thanks. I figured as much, and while I may disagree with 2 or 3 of the options, every NBA fan is different and we all have different ways of how and why we root for and against who we do.

I guess I am just more curious to see if im the minority as far as not wanting my team to have anything to do with a player like that. The thing is, as long as Artest is on my team, I'd root for him, because I always place the team above any one player, whether I like them or not.

 

Define cheap. I mean, if you go to the Pacers, and say "we'll give up anyone besides Yao and T-Mac", then their eyes bug out and theyll ask for two starters (JJ and Mo or Howard + someone of the bench like Lue or Sura).

Would you give up that much, or just say "you can have Lue and Reece Gains and thats it"?

And I am assuming you want to make a deal because you think the Rockets could control him, no? If so, what makes you think the Rockets could control him better than the Pacers?

Or, are you just assesing risk and feel that the good things he brings will far outweigh any potential bad things?

 

saitou,

1) If Artest promised to behave, how seriously would you take him? Wouldn't that be the 5th or 6th time he will have promised to behave?

2) "Artest changes everything, and as a player, I think he's that good." - He changes everything alright and while he may be that good, he has potential to be that bad.

If you trade for him, and have to give up some good role players to do so, and he gets suspended again, is that trade still worth it?

If it wasn't, the was it reasonable to assume that he might get suspended again before you made the trade?

All about risk assesment here.

 

The thing is, Artest is on a short leash now, and his suspensions, even for minor infractions like fighting or habitual flagrant fouling, are going to be longer than they would for a normal player (just like a penalty for 3rd time DUI offender would be worse than a penalty for a 1st time DUI offender). Because of that, the aspect of what make Artest great as a player are going to be tempered. And thats a huge key for me.

The NBA will keep slapping him down, hard, until he finally stops.