The Pacers believe they were one knee-tweak to Jermaine O’Neal away from getting to the Finals last year, which avoids the reality that Ron Artest is a freaking maniac whom David Stern would’ve given his left arm to keep out of the NBA’s biggest stage.<\/p>\n
And [Artest is] the #2 guy on this squad, although he contends that he’s the MVP of the league. Great talent, no head: the Jeff George of the NBA . . . I still don’t trust [the Pacers] under real pressure, because I think Artest will explode, and O’Neal’s too in love with his jumper (and a little too fragile).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
So I was partly wrong. Jermaine O’Neal might not face much wear-and-tear this season, since he’s suspended for 25 games.<\/p>\n
It was wrong of the fans to throw stuff at the Pacers. It was wrong of Artest to race up into the stands. It was wrong of Ben Wallace to keep trying to incite Artest by throwing a towel at him.<\/p>\n
But it was really<\/em> bullshit of Artest to lie back on the scorers table, put his feet up, cradle his head, and preen for the opposing crowd, after he and Wallace were separated. That must’ve burned his general manager’s ass (some guy named Bird) to no end, to see his player dump that much disrespect on the game.<\/p>\nI agree with the season-long suspension that Artest’s been handed. Given his history of wig-outs, he needs some massive penalty to show him that it’s time to start taking those meds.<\/p>\n
Oh, and nice job selecting Dennis Rodman’s number for your jersey this season, dick.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
To quote my own NBA preview: The Pacers believe they were one knee-tweak to Jermaine O’Neal away from getting to the Finals last year, which avoids the reality that Ron Artest is a freaking maniac whom David Stern would’ve given his left arm to keep out of the NBA’s biggest stage. And [Artest is] the … <\/p>\n
Continue reading “My new psychic technique is unstoppable”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-basketball"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-6r","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":412,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm","url_meta":{"origin":399,"position":0},"title":"NBA Preview: Central Divisionby Gil\u2026","author":"Gil","date":"November 5, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"NBA Preview: Central Divisionby Gil RothChicago BullsA few seasons ago, the Bulls made a huge gamble in the draft. With two of the top four picks, they took high school big men Tyson Chandler and Eddy Curry. The idea was that both would develop into legit bigs, and the team\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2756,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/theres-nothing-wrong-with-you-that-i-cant-fix-with-my-stats","url_meta":{"origin":399,"position":1},"title":"There’s nothing wrong with you that I can’t fix. With my stats.","author":"Gil","date":"October 24, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Possibly the greatest basketball-to-comics non sequitur ever, courtesy of ESPN's NBA preview article on Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey: Morey grew up reading Bill James' Baseball Abstract and later worked for the stats guru, but his geekier tendencies might actually have more to do with his boyhood love of comic\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Comic books & strips"","block_context":{"text":"Comic books & strips","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature\/comics"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":677,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/nba-2005-central-division-preview","url_meta":{"origin":399,"position":2},"title":"NBA 2005 Central Division Preview","author":"Gil","date":"October 27, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"by Gil Roth(NBA Week continues on VM! 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Bulls, Bucks, Rockets, Cavaliers, Nuggets, Mavericks, Jazz, Hawks,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "basketball"","block_context":{"text":"basketball","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/sports\/basketball"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5398,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/what-it-is-62110","url_meta":{"origin":399,"position":4},"title":"What It Is: 6\/21\/10","author":"Gil","date":"June 21, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"What I'm reading: Imperial Bedrooms What I'm listening to: Walking Wounded, You Could Start a Fight in an Empty Room, and High Violet What I'm watching: Honeymoon in Vegas, Boondocks, and the end of the NBA finals. 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