Artest doesn't deserve to be hounded by refs

Ron Artest isn't the NBA's resident reprobate.

He isn't a pit bull on a short leash. In fact, he's more Ronald McDonald than Ron the Ripper. Yet, he's being treated like a criminal. Truthfully, I feel for Artest.

I'm not an Artest apologist, but I don't believe what happened in Detroit was entirely his fault.

Go look at the tape of the melee infamously dubbed "Malice in the Palace."

Ben Wallace was the instigator of that fight. Instead of retaliating after getting shoved, Artest lounged on the scorer's table and jokingly put on Reggie Miller's headset. Meanwhile, the referees did nothing to defuse the situation, and Artest ended up drenched in beer that a rowdy fan chucked at him. The ordeal ended with Artest being shelved for 72 games, the longest suspension in NBA history.

"If I would've known the referees were going to handle things the way they did - not handling the situation at all - I would've probably fought (Wallace)," Artest said in an interview. "They were supposed to eject him. They didn't eject him."

Artest's past antics are entirely explainable, a story about the inherent distrust of authority that resides within us all. And as these playoffs prove, he's yet to live down his Ron the Ripper persona. Twice, Artest has been ejected in this second-round series between the Lakers and Rockets. Both ejections were egregious errors on the part of the officials and completely unwarranted.

In a scrum for a rebound, Artest took an elbow from Kobe Bryant squarely in the Adam's apple. But the refs swallowed their whistles, instead handing Artest a personal foul. Agitated by the zebras' non-call on Bryant, Artest took matters into his own hands and got up in Bryant's mug.

"If you're going to get out of line, I'm going to get out of line," Artest said he told Bryant. "I told Kobe, 'You can do whatever you want to do. I'm not going to react. I'm going to let the refs control it.'"

What did the refs do?

They ejected Artest for trash talking. Clearly, if it was any other player, it wouldn't have resulted in an ejection - merely a technical foul, if that. Artest was slapped with another ejection on Friday after a hard foul sent Pau Gasol sprawling to the hardwood.

The NBA is doing itself a disservice by allowing refs to act with bias in circumstances involving Artest.

Will Artest flip again and run up into the stands? Probably not. I mean, he's cracking jokes about the incident.

"I've been in the stands before," Artest said about his most recent venture into the stands to save a ball. "Actually, this guy offered me some beer. When he did that, I was like, 'I'm going to sit down and enjoy this. He's not throwing it at me.' I was actually going to take a sip, but there's too many cameras."

But is Artest capable of going off on the court? Yes, and it's because of his me-against-the-world mentality. Can you blame him? He's had to have it to survive. Ron-Ron grew up in the projects of Queensbridge where disrespect of authority is the norm.

These people have mostly seen authorities - and in this case, we're talking about cops - do more to ignite problems than defuse them.

Cops don't take preventive measures to ensure peace. More often, they're responding to violent acts that have already been committed. And in responding to calls for help, cops have Rodney-King Complex. The dawn of racial profiling means everyone's a criminal, even when they're innocent bystanders. Artest had only one person to rely on - himself. And his past misgivings are entirely attributable to this.

But he's evolved, and something tells me Artest's evolution is simple: At the beginning of his career, he was hesitant to place authority in others' hands. Finally, he's begun to respect and even rely on authority. You see it in his actions. You hear it in his words.

There was a time when Artest didn't allow officials or authority figures "control" over situations. Artest was sheriff, and he was going to be the long arm of the law. By his own admission, Artest said it's taken him "a lot of years to back off and realize that that's not what the league is about."

And the misunderstood Artest understands. David Stern and the league, however, don't get it.

"You have to have balls to hit a guy like me in the throat," Artest said. "You're hitting the wrong person. Don't you know you're hitting Ron Artest?"

Before Game 3, Artest said he warned the referees he'd give them three chances to protect him. Artest told one media outlet that if they didn't, he was going to "report it to the police."

They can't help Ron. Stern refuses to help Artest, and the refs have a man-crush on Bryant.

What option does that leave Artest? Well, you don't want to know. It involves him reverting back to a ballistic wrecking ball, the man you saw in Detroit five years ago.

The funny thing is, that's not Artest. That's a worn-out perception that we have of him. And it's reified everywhere you turn. The Macrophenomenal Guide to Basketball has a chapter on Artest. In it they say, "Despite his goodwill trips to Kenya and his self-sponsored charity game in his old Queensbridge neighborhood, few fans can muster the sympathy to see him as 'simply misunderstood' or as 'just a big kid.'

Rest knowing I sympathize with your plight, Ron.