For those of you who didn't get to watch the game, here is a short list of things Ron Artest did to make me cheer and/or laugh:
- He scored 18 points on 50 percent shooting, most of the damage coming in the otherwise destitute first half.
- He shut down Joe Johnson in the second half to the tune of six points. Two of the baskets were really late.
- He smacked Josh Childress (or someone) on the top of the head, briefly expressed shock at foul call, then pointed and laughed at Childress (I think).
- He got six rebounds and three assists, and only turned it over once.
- He did his entire on-air postgame interview with Jerry Reynolds and some red-headed man wearing (apparently) only a bathrobe. Of course, the camera stayed above the waist, but there was no evidence of shorts. (This reminds me of a story the great Kelly Dwyer told me about Brad Miller and chewing tobacco.)*
- When Elston Turner was doing his regular on-air interview with Reynolds and the above-mentioned red-headed man, Ron walked up and turned the microphone away from ET's mouth. He then pointed and laughed, once Turner had seen what happened.
- He constantly talked with Kevin Martin. If Speedracer does turn into an All-Star, I won't hesistate to give Ron a slice of the credit.
- Oh yeah, he willed the Kings (with some ballsy shots from MB10, wholesale domination by Brad and Reef, a great road effort from Speed, active coaching from RA and a nice spark from Bonzi) to victory.
* This Brad Miller story was inaccurately attributed to Kevin Pelton. It was KD who suffered through the incident, so it is KD that shall get the credit. My bad.