Nothin’ Wrong With A Little Face Time in the Shower
On Sunday, Laker coach Phil Jackson was interviewed on KLAC radio in Los Angeles about the ongoing development with his team, including the somewhat surprising acquisition of forward Ron Artest. For most members of the media, the arrival of Ron-Ron in LaLa Land was an unforeseeable development. For Phil Jackson, it was something that was foreseeable 13 months ago.Jackson was asked if Kobe Bryant – similar to Michael Jordan – ever had input on the acquisitions of player personnel from year to year. Jackson never really answered the question, but dropped the following nugget instead.
After the Lakers lost by 539 points (actually just 39) in the sixth and final game of the 2008 Finals, Ron Artest, who was in the audience and still under contract with the Sacramento Kings inexplicably got into L.A.’s locker room and inexplicably found his way in front of Phil Jackson to offer up his services to the Lakers in the near future. All of this inexplicably happened without any of the STAPLES Center security categorically getting fired … inexplicably.
Are NBA players just allowed in all league locker rooms? Were the guards scared of Tru Warrier? Did bribery happen? Perhaps we’ll never know?
According to the Zen Master:
Ron said, “Coach, I can help your team, I can get that championship for the Lakers.’” I said, “Well, thanks Ron, that’s very nice, I appreciate your sympathies. We’ll see what happens as you go through this year.’”
Phil Jackson is like a ninja. I have no problem believing that he sat there all Dracula-shouldered and calm listening to one of the most unpredictable athletes of the last 20 years stand in his locker room and audition like he was a Laker Girl. I also have no problem believing Jackson thought about the strangeness of such a disruption for less than two minutes after it happened. On to next season. New business.
Perhaps unfortunately for Kobe Bryant, Jackson didn’t feel the need to escort Ron-Ron out because instead of saying his peace and leaving, Artest went further.
He walked out of that coaches’ area, and in to the shower and told Kobe the same thing. Kobe’s been knowing Ron’s intentions for the last two years … He didn’t soap down Kobe and he didn’t towel him off, I’m not saying that.
I won’t lie, if I was alone in a shower and saw Ron Artest standing there, I’d assume I had only seconds left to live. Why don’t Jackson and Bryant seem more confused or creeped out by Artest roaming the bowels of a stadium he doesn’t play for? The most entertaining thing about this story is not Ron Artest’s disregard for a) tact b) privacy and c) normalcy, it’s imagining how uncomfortable Bryant must have been shooting the breeze a) minutes after losing the NBA Finals b) with a player who is neither a teammate nor a friend and c) wet and naked, but not in sexy way.
Do you think they hugged at the end of Artest’s query? Did Bryant awkwardly grip a towel around his waste while shaking hands? Now that they are teammates, will Artest assume that the shower pop-in is an acceptable form of negotiation?
UPDATE: Bryant’s got his side of the story. Remarkably, it’s not much different from Jackson’s. “[Artest] came in there and he said, ‘This is not going to happen to you [again]. I’m going to come in here and help you out.’ He wound up being in Houston, and [then] took us to Game 7. But he’s here now. It’s something we’ve both been trying to make happen for a while and here it is.”
The only other question is how much Bryant spent on the diamond he gave his wife after she found out he and Artest showered together.
Listen to the full radio interview HERE
Leave a Reply
