The NBA's Second Artest
As previously mentioned, the first thing I saw when I entered the gym for the Wizards' first Summer League game was Daniel Artest, the younger brother of Ron, soaring through the air for a dunk during layup lines, to the extent that a 300-pound man can soar through the air. The program lists him at 280. Daniel told me he's more like 290. Ron told me it's probably more like 300. The Hilton Sports Book has the over-under at 297.
Also as previously mentioned, Ron Artest watched the Kings-Wiz game from the front row, at times holding a bright green stuffed animal, which presumably belonged to the children with whom he sat. I asked him whether I might take his photo. He declined but said maybe later. I decided to wait. When Ron Artest asks you not to take his photo, I believe prudence dictates that you not take his photo.
But I did talk to both Ron and Daniel about Daniel's budding basketball career. Daniel caused a bit of a flap earlier in the week with some talk of Ron's potential move to the Knicks (read Posting and Toasting and Sactown Royalty for more), and so he kindly asked me not to discuss that topic, which doesn't interest me much anyhow.
So, where to begin? Daniel has both a sense of humor and a sense of grandeur about the whole thing, so I'll let you decide exactly how serious this all is, but my impression is it's plenty serious. Like, I asked Daniel to compare himself to a current NBA guy.
"Nobody, really, because I don't think nobody could do what I do," he told me. "A lot of people try to compare me to like a Chuck Hayes or whatever, but he can't do what I can do. I can shoot that ball. I can shoot that rock. I can ball. I can get it."
As for the why, "I'm trying to just experience playing the professional game and the NBA life," he said. "It's fun, by the way."
Photos after the jump.
Daniel never played high school basketball; he told me that he never wanted to and never thought about it, preferring streetball. On the other hand, Ron told me that Daniel couldn't play in high school because of his grades--"but he reads a lot," Ron pointed out, which, frankly, is more important. And Daniel did play against some playground legends, and for a couple colleges, and for a third division German team. And he works out all the time with Ron, and so he got a Kings tryout. Ron told me he asked the coaches for the tryout, and Daniel told me the coaches saw him working out and asked him if he'd like to try out.
Future NBA star Daniel Artest. Hey, you never know. (By SportsBog)
Regardless, Daniel was asked about the biggest challenge of launching an NBA career at the age of 24.
"Doing everything, the same thing, every day," he said, "just getting up early in the morning and going to practice, stuff that I'm not used to. I just started organized basketball like three years ago. It's a whole new experience, but I'm ready for the challenge."
He and Ron began working out seriously three months ago, and Daniel has already dropped at least 20 pounds. But even at 300 he can throw down, and anyhow the weight isn't important, due to the position he hopes to play.
"They want me to be a guard, but I like playing like Barkley," he told me. "I'm fast enough to be a guard. Whenever I get the opportunity to play, you're gonna see how I play. I can jump and everything. I can hit the NBA three. I've been working on my whole game. We've been doing this for months. A lot of running, shooting drills. We'll shoot like 600 shots a day, every day, then we'll come back at nighttime and shoot up another two or three hundred more. I push [Ron] and he pushes me."
Then Daniel told me that he can take Ron one-on-one, and urged me to ask Ron for confirmation. Which I did. He dodged the question, but was effusive in his praise of his brother.
"If you can see him play, he's gonna surprise people," Ron said, the "if" being necessary because of Daniel's DNP yesterday. "What it is, is a lot of people lack guidance, you know? Me being in the NBA, I didn't have time to worry about my brother, but everybody else got agents, and everybody else have connections, and my brother don't have that, you know? So I'm going to give him as much help as possible as my brother.
"He'll be in the League one day. If he keeps working, he'll be in the League. Because there's nobody really in the League [like him], besides maybe [Chuck] Hayes from Houston, the kid [Sharrod?] Ford who used to play with Phoenix, another big guy who played for Boston, a real big kid. There's not many players like Barkley, those type of guys, not many players like that in the league.
"He could be one of those types of players. He can shoot, that's gonna help. He can shoot, he can handle the ball, he can shoot threes. I don't think a lot of guys at his physique, at his position, his type of players can shoot threes as well as he can shoot threes, you know? So I think that will separate him."
As soon as I asked Daniel Artest for an interview, NBA TV stepped in and nabbed him first. (By SportsBog)
Realistically, Daniel is hoping to spend next year overseas, and to use Summer League as an audition to that end. He downplayed Ron's role in getting him this chance; if Ron had real influence, Daniel pointed out, he probably wouldn't be logging DNP's, an argument I couldn't counter. Also, Daniel says he's a better lyricist than Ron, although he's not as seriously into the music biz.
"I rap, but I'm not a rapper," he told me. "I'm just doing it because I ain't got nothing else to do, besides working out. And living in Sacramento? Ain't nothing else to do but to do music. But I ain't trying to be like Ron."
"He don't take it as seriously as I take it," Ron agreed. "I rap; he just jokes."
By Dan Steinberg |
July 11, 2007; 4:19 AM ET
| Category:
NBA
Previous: Wizards Lose |
Next: Nick Young's Shoes
Get This Widget >>
Posted by: TheHype | July 11, 2007 08:16 AM
Dan: Did you know there's a guy whose sole job is to find chairs for these hotel rooms?
Ivan: Please take the chairs away.
Dan: Like this one! It's red with gold stripes and -
[sits]
Dan: - oh, this one is amazing!
Ivan: Please take the chairs away. I don't like them. The big one is staring at me and that short one is being very droll.
Posted by: CreditZard | July 11, 2007 09:45 AM
steinberg = raoul duke
ivan = dr gonzo
Posted by: littles | July 11, 2007 09:56 AM
Right, except while Dr. Ivan was doing peyote in barstow last night, or whatever the high-end beat writers do in these parts, I was screaming at the cursed blackjack dealers in some wretched neon apocalyptal paradise and bemoaning my fate in life, which wasn't very gonzo of me.
Posted by: Dan Steinberg | July 11, 2007 10:04 AM
We can't stop here. This is bat country.
Posted by: Unsilent Majority | July 11, 2007 10:34 AM
I can only believe that letting Daniel onto the team is a move to keep Ron in good spirits. I'm from Germany and have played against Daniel Artest's third division team one year before he arrived, and I'm 6'5", have two mediocre dunks in my arsenal and am playing the four spot. If somebody is playing in Germany's third division and not standing out all that much, he's not going to be a player in Europe's top leagues and much less the NBA.
Posted by: Kaifa | July 11, 2007 10:41 AM
This is not a good town for psychedelic drugs. Reality itself is too twisted.
Posted by: WaPoLiveFan16 | July 11, 2007 11:39 AM
the ether started kicking in
Posted by: greasedupdeafguy | July 11, 2007 02:00 PM
Kaifa, it's Ron Artest. It'd be worth starting an NBDL team in Sacto just to keep them both under supervision. Although, I can't tell which idea is scarier: having them together or keeping them separate.
Posted by: Scrumdown | July 11, 2007 02:12 PM
If he is that good or important to artest, might as well put him in the development leauge of the kings, as he will be here and maybe that will help artest as maybe he just needs some family in his life, or ron might be the role model his brother need, and more importantly ron may need dan in his life, so he knows that he has to act like a older brother; think bout' it and if he could beat artest in a game of one on one as the younger artest claims, he cant be that bad
Posted by: Arsh | July 12, 2007 12:12 AM
daniel artest who??? that guy looks like shaq not working out and expects to play the guard position what the hell is going on?
Posted by: alib | July 12, 2007 10:24 AM
daniel artest who??? that guy looks like shaq not working out and expects to play the guard position what the hell is going on?
Posted by: alib | July 12, 2007 10:24 AM
The comments to this entry are closed.
Dan Steinberg Does God's Work