Wednesday, January 5th, 2011 at 10:30 am  |  17 responses

Phil Jackson Downplays ‘Confrontation’ With Ron Artest

Phil Jackson — who’s been at the center of mini controversies all week long — said a published report of a recent tête-a-tête between him and Tru Warier was mostly correct, but some details were embellished. From ESPN: “Before Tuesday’s game against the Pistons, Phil Jackson responded to a report from Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports of a dust up between the head coach and Ron Artest: ‘At a recent practice, league sources said, Artest loudly confronted Jackson… Essentially, Artest told Jackson that if he wants to coach him, coach him. Just stop embarrassing him in public.’ … ‘It’s close to accurate,’ Jackson said of the report. ‘It was not a loud confrontation, it was a man-to-man confrontation. And it was obviously out of character for both that to happen at practice, and for Ron. And it wasn’t about embarrassing him publicly, it was about some of the issues that had been brought up that have focused about him.’ Jackson called the incident ‘out of character for both that to happen at practice, and for Ron.’ Later, according to Jackson, Artest delivered an unsolicited apology both to him and the team for causing a distraction. There was nothing about what happened Jackson found particularly unusual about the chatfrontation, save the fact somebody talked about it to the media. ‘Obviously there’s either a spy, or a camera, or a leak, or something that went on in our practice,’ he smiled. ‘But [arguments] are things that happen in practice, and it’s not the first time, and it’s not going to be the last.’ For his part, Artest refused to comment specifically despite being asked about 12 different ways to describe what happened. ‘I would have to talk to coach first because last year I had issues with coach going to the media first before [coming to me],’ he said. ‘I’ve been working so hard over the last couple years on my whole Ron Artest image. I worked real hard to try to keep everything positive so it’s really hard to comment on anything right now at this point and time until I would speak to coach.’”

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  • Eboy Posted: Jan.5 at 10:34 am
    Odds that Ron makes it past the trade deadline still on the Lakers roster: 40%.

  • dirty frank Posted: Jan.5 at 10:48 am
    I like how they both handled it. Doesn’t seem like a big deal to me. Shame on whomever leaked this incident.

  • Kap Posted: Jan.5 at 10:58 am
    Unfortunately, I don’t see the Lakers making a deal even though they need to find a young, long scorer on the perimeter.

  • biged Posted: Jan.5 at 11:39 am
    man trade him for someone who wants to win. im tired of his b.s. stephen jackson wouldn’t be a bad look. him and odom for black griffin, lol…jk

  • Jer-Dawg Posted: Jan.5 at 11:39 am
    This ish better spark Lakers from here on out. I can’t stand 10+ pt losses anymore. That’s just not giving an effort. If they lose it better be because they lose close games. Unacceptable.

  • biged Posted: Jan.5 at 11:40 am
    *blake griffin

  • Allenp Posted: Jan.5 at 12:39 pm
    Damn, the trip from the penthouse to the outhouse is MAD short.

  • Eboy Posted: Jan.5 at 3:14 pm
    This is the end of the Laker Empire. The Heat are rising. Like my friend told me once ” You either die a hero or see yourself turn to a villian.”

  • JTaylor21 Posted: Jan.5 at 3:34 pm
    I love how Lakers fans don’t have to worry about their team, they have Eboy to worry for them

  • PapaBearATL Posted: Jan.5 at 5:38 pm
    The Lakers just need to show some enthusiasm for the game! It’s like they are bored out there. They truly think they can just turn it on in the play-offs? Good luck with that theory…

  • ClydeSays Posted: Jan.5 at 8:22 pm
    Kind of tired of the drama Phil invents (calling players out in the press, making snide comments about other teams, etc) to keep himself and his team interested in the regular season. Shut up and play.

  • Chief Posted: Jan.6 at 1:44 am
    I’m with Allenp on this one, artest is a winner you need to look at other people,key people who should be taking over from bean, who aren’t performing. Not artest

  • Justin Posted: Jan.6 at 2:22 am
    LOL! Eboy quoting a friend who’s quoting the Dark Knight? Really?

  • Mollywood1983 Posted: Jan.6 at 3:41 am
    /choking in tears/ why can’t we all just get along?? you can’t put a foot wrong these days without the details being smeared out all over the place. but one thing became clear the past few weeks: there are happier places out there right now than the laker locker room.

  • True H Posted: Jan.6 at 8:15 am
    I thought Black Griffen was Blake’s new nickname or something, lol. I was like, thats a pretty Ironic nickname…

  • reflex Posted: Jan.6 at 8:39 am
    @ True H, you know he gets his hops from his black side! #jus’ saying

  • torobravo Posted: Jan.6 at 9:00 am
    @EBOY Your friend is quoting dark knight……

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