Ron Artest: Lakers/Suns Triple OT ‘Pre-Destined’


by Marcel Mutoni@marcel_mutoni

Last night’s epic battle in Los Angeles was a game of wacky and borderline silly outcomes, as the Lakers and Suns traded blows into the wee hours.

In the end, L.A. delivered the knocked punch, after which Ron Artest explained to the media that the interminable game was all part of some type of promotional boxing plan. Or something.

Artest’s dizzying heroics led to predictably hilarious postgame interviews, during which Ron-Ron tried to make sense of arguably the wildest night in the NBA this season.

From the LA Times:

The crowd gasped in frustration, pleading for Lakers forward Ron Artest not to shoot the wide open three-pointer. He did anyway. The shot dropped in the bucket, gave the Lakers a three-point lead in the first overtime Tuesday against the Phoenix Suns and the 18,997 at Staples Center reacted hysterically. In return, Artest blew kisses in the air, soaking in all the adulation.

He proclaimed the Lakers game lasted for three hours and nine minutes because he and boxing promoter Bob Arum thought it’d give him a plug to promote a possible Manny Paquiao-Floyd Mayweather fight. “I knew it was going to happen so half the time I was just on roller skates,” Artest said. “Did you see me skating? I was back skating because I knew what was going to happen … I knew what the outcome was so I was relaxed,” Artest said. “We talked about it already. It’s not a fix. We know what’s going to happen. When we say what’s going to happen, it happens.”

The truth of the matter, of course, is that Phoenix ran out of gas (and bodies) by the third overtime, as the Lakers’ talent and resiliency simply overwhelmed them.

But I, too, prefer Ron Artest’s explanation of what took place.