Artest, Brown sign contracts

Just got word that the Lakers signed Ron Artest and Shannon Brown to contracts tonight. Brown signed at 9:01 p.m., the first minute he could actually put his name to paper. His deal is worth $4.2 million over two seasons. About 40 minutes later, the Lakers signed Artest to a five-season, $33-million contract. Artest will wear uniform No. 37 in honor of the number of weeks that Michael Jackson’s album “Thriller” was No. 1 on the charts. No, really.

Blazers interested in Odom?

Some seriously conflicted reports out of Portland in the last few days about the Trail Blazers’ level of interest in Lamar Odom. By one account, the Blazers have zero interest in any free agents now that Hedo Turkoglu has spurned them for the Toronto Raptors. By another, the Blazers are ending their pursuit of the Knicks’ David Lee and focusing on Odom. The Blazers have about $7 million or so in cap room, which might not be enough to sign Odom. The Lakers can sign Odom for whatever owner Jerry Buss is willing to pay, although there are indications that might only be around $7 million or so. Stay tuned.

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Season Review: Luke Walton

OVERVIEW: Backup forward Luke Walton’s biggest contribution this season might have been telling Coach Phil Jackson that the Lakers were better off with Trevor Ariza starting. Walton took a seat on the bench in March and Ariza sparked the Lakers as their starting small forward. Walton averaged five points and 2.8 rebounds in 64 games, including 34 starts. He also averaged 3.8 points and 2.5 rebounds in the playoffs. Walton’s statistics declined for the second consecutive season, after he averaged career-bests of 11.4 points and five rebounds in 60 games, all starts, in 2006-07. Jackson likes Walton’s passing ability, relying on him to help the second unit stick to the triangle offense. Jackson also counts on Walton to play a solid defensive game.

QUOTEWORTHY: “To make sacrifices and to see it play off, it’s really sweet.”

STRENGTH: Has a high basketball IQ, as the coaches might say.

WEAKNESS: Mid-range jump shot isn’t as sharp as it should be.

GRADE: B.

CONTRACT STATUS: Signed through 2012-13.

How did we miss this?

Wow, just came across this hilarious press conference with Ron Artest and Yao Ming after the Houston Rockets beat Portland to advance to the Western Conference semis vs. the Lakers.

A reporter asks Artest about a play in which his momentum from chasing down a loose ball carried him into the stands and whether he soaked in the love from the home folks. Artest quipped, “Well, I’ve been in the stands before.”

The room erupts in laugher and Yao Ming laughs so hard it looks like he’s about to fall out of his chair.

Kobe and MJ. Michael Jackson that is.

Kobe Bryant will be one of the honorary guests invited to Michael Jackson’s funeral at Staples Center tommorrow. At first I assumed it was just a courtesy invite, but it turns out Kobe and the King of Pop developed a good friendship over the years.

“I was one of the 65 million people that bought the Thriller album,” he said.

But their friendship goes a lot deeper than that.

“It’s and honor to be a part of it,” Bryant said. I think Michael was extremely misunderstood. Extremely misunderstood. He was so generous, extremely giving and caring. Aside from us talking about work and how he tried to prepare and train for things, he introduced to movies that I would never ever watch, like `American in Paris,’ or `Breakfast at Tiffany’s.’ Like I would never watch those. But he introduced those to me and opened up a whole other side of things. Appreciating Fred Astaire’s talent and things like that. Seeing how that relates to basketball. We used to have those conversations all the time. He’s just such a giver, and such a beautiful person.”

State of Kobe

We had a chance to catch up with Kobe Bryant today as he did a media session at the start of his annual basketball camp at LMU. Unlike some superstar athletes, Kobe actually teaches at his own camp and genuinely seems to enjoy it. “I wouldn’t do it if I couldn’t be here myself,” he said.

Of course catching up with him at his camp also provided us to get his thoughts on some of the recent player personnel moves the Lakers have made. You know, that Ron Artest thing…

Asked whether the Artest signing makes the Lakers a better team, Bryant said:

“I think it makes us a different team. It’s tough to say whether we’ll be a better team or not. We haven’t won a championship with that unit yet. Trevor brought his style to us, which was very effective obviously. And Ron will bring his style to us. We’ll just be a different team. Every year we adapt and we adjust. I’m sad to see Trevor go, because everybody knows that he’s like my brother. He still is. ”

Kobe then confirmed the now infamous shower scene story, and noted that, “This is something we’ve both been trying to make happen for a while.”

“I’ve known him for a long long time,” Kobe said. “It’s one of those things, and he’ll tell you this story too… After we lost to the Celtics, he came in the locker room, and I was in there, just by myself. And he just came in the locker room and said, `This is not going to happen to you again. I’m going to come there and I’m going to help you out. He wound up being in Houston, then the next year took us to Game 7. But he’s here now.”

That said, the way it went down has been hotly debated in recent days. This columnist loved the move, thinking the Lakers showed a lot of guts, and will be rewarded with another round of champagne glory next June.

Others felt like the Lakers walked away from Trevor Ariza a bit too quickly.

Bryant said he was fine with how the business end played out, but noted he didn’t have any official input on the situation.

“I don’t think it was something where we picked Ron Artest over Trevor,” Bryant said. “I think with Trevor, we made an offer, and his representative felt like he could look elsewhere a little bit. And during that time, the Lakers talked to Ron and Ron was ready to go.

“I think it’s either/or. I think if they went with Trevor, or with Ron, either way we’d be fine this year.”

But what about that chemistry stuff?

“Where is that concern coming from?” Bryant asked. “Because he ran in the stands and kicked somebody’s (butt)? You talk to anybody that played with him, he’s a great teammate. He’s never been a problem in the locker room. He had that one incident in Detroit, which was unfortunate. But outside of that, it’s not a problem at all. ”

Brown agrees to stay

Shannon Brown has agreed to a two-season contract worth $4.2 million, his agent said today. Brown turned his back on more lucrative offers from other teams to return to the Lakers, agent Mark Bartlestein said. “The Lakers did a tremendous job of recruiting him to stay,” Bartlestein said. “And he really wanted to stay.” The Lakers acquired Brown and Adam Morrison in the Feb. 7 trade that sent Vladimir Radmanovic to the Charlotte Bobcats.

With Brown back in the fold and Ron Artest coming from Houston to replace Trevor Ariza, plus Kobe Bryant deciding against opting out of his contract and Phil Jackson announcing he would return for at least one more season, there’s only one deal still to be struck. Lamar Odom still needs a new contract. There’s been no public statement from Odom or his agent Jeff Schwartz, which means whatever you take it to mean.

Season Review: Sasha Vujacic

OVERVIEW: Reserve guard Sasha Vujacic spent most of the season looking for his absent shooting touch. It went missing not long after he suffered a sprained ankle during training camp, and he never could find it. Vujacic averaged 5.8 points on 38 percent shooting, down from an average of 8.8 points on 45 percent shooting in 2007-08. He averaged three points on 26 percent shooting in the playoffs, when his playing time dropped from an average of 16 minutes during the regular season to only 11 minutes. The Lakers suggested that Vujacic spend some time away from the gym during the offseason. They thought it would be a good idea for him to clear his head. He plans to play for his native Slovenia in the European Championships in September in Poland.

QUOTEWORTHY: “I make no promises now, but I’m going to do it (improve his overall game next season) on the court.”

STRENGTH: Has the ability to be an above-average perimeter shooter.

WEAKNESS: Seems to be in too much of a hurry to launch his jump shot.

GRADE: C.

CONTRACT STATUS: Signed through 2010-11.

Finally: Luke Walton.

Ron Artest raw and uncut

So much for traditional media and press conferences. So much, for Twitter.

Over the holiday weekend, Ron Artest released two videos documenting some behind the scenes footage of his whirlwind courtship with the Lakers.

Here’s a link to the first, most revealing video:

In it Artest shows us a conversation he had with his wife as negotiations with the Lakers start heating up, and a rather riveting conversation with his agent, David Bauman, who relays the Lakers interest in his services. Hard to tell exactly which night this is, but it is most likely Wednesday night, since Artest reached an agreement in principle with the Lakers on Thursday afternoon.

After getting off the phone with his wife, Artest places a call to Bauman, who asks how some of his meetings with producers and record executives have been going, then relays how the first hours of the free-agent negotiating period have gone:

Bauman: I just got back home and I have a message from the Rockets and they want to talk tomorrow. And I just spoke to Mitch Kupchak for a half hour, the general manager of the Lakers.

Ron: What’d he want?

DB: What do you think he wants? He wants to get you a championship ring next year.

Ron: Wow

DB. The only problem is money. There’s just no clean, easy way to do it. … So he understood.

What he’s going to do, he’s not going to do anything with other players right now. He wants me to figure out where the lay of the land is on Houston for you. And he wants me to call him everyday with some updates.

Artest doesn’t react much, but seems to be listening intently as Bauman goes on to give a brief survey of the free agent landscape. He talks about Detroit’s plans, how Carlos Boozer and Mehmet Okur didn’t opt out, which means Detroit won’t use its cap space on Boozer. That, Bauman says, “is good because it takes two guys off the market.”

He mentions Utah’s restricted free agent Paul Millsap, who will now “be kind of squeezed,” and that (Trevor) “Ariza will probably get some offers, Mitch thinks around 35 or 42 total for a five or six year deal, like seven (million) a year. And Turkoglu is probably going to Portland, which is the word on the street.”

“The Rockets are in a really tough spot. They really don’t know what the prognosis is for Yao, and a lot of what they offer…”

Just when it’s really getting good though, some random guy walks up to Artest’s car and starts trying to sell him some magazine or something. Artest politely tries to get rid of him, but Bauman keeps talking on a speakerphone.

Finally, we get back to the conversation.

DB: Did you ever hook up with LeBron?
Ron: I’m speaking to LeBron as we speak right now. He called me. He’s a real cool dude.

DB: Of course he is. Was he talking to you about getting you there?

Ron: We haven’t talked about no teams or anything. I’ve spoke to him periodically. My cousin was in jail with his Pops, you know. My cousin did ten years, his Pops did some years too. They was in the (Feds) together. But um. So I spoke to him periodically about, um, that. He didn’t speak about nothing (business wise), he just just said you know, `You’re a great player and he kind of would like for me to be on his team,’ and stuff like that.

DB: OK, well feel him out. Find out what’s up. And I put a call into the GM, Danny Ferry already. Things are going well. It’s going to be a very slow process, just so you know.

Bauman was right about a lot of things in the conversation, except the last part. Within 24 hours of the video being shot, Artest had agreed to terms with the Lakers.

Artest interview

Here’s an interview Ron Artest did with ESPN.
Thanks to Ramona for transcribing it.

Q: How did (a three-year, $18-million agreement with the Lakers) come about?
A: “I thought i was going back to Houston, but when Yao (Ming) got hurt and my Bird rights were with the Houston Rockets it kind of messed up my chance of going back to Houston. I was a little disappointed Houston offered me a one-year deal, then said, ‘David (Bauman, his agent), let’s see what options we have and L.A. was the first team to step up and I’m so happy to be here.”

Q: On taking a pay cut.
A: “I’ve made money over my time in the NBA. I lost some money when David Stern suspended me (for 73 games for his role in the ‘Malice in the Palace’ brawl in 2004-05). That kind of hurt. But I’m playng to win, I’m not playing for the money no more.”

Q: What do you need to do for Lakers?
A: “Just fit in and do exactly what’s asked of you from coach, and it’ll work. That’s what I did last year and that’s why we were able to exceed all the expectations of everybody and all the doubters out there in Houston.”

Q: On his relationship with Kobe Bryant.
A: “Kobe’s cool. He reached out to me a couple times. On the court is different. Especially in your opponent. There’s no friends out there, no helping anybody up off the floor. I get a chance to play with him, it’s going ot be a good feeling. I think it’ll develop, but it’s been there. It’s been there for quite some time. Now that we’ve got the same purple and gold on, it’s going to make it that much better. So I’m looking foward to playing with all the teammates.”

Q: Are you confident Phil Jackson will be your coach?
A: “He’s my coach. Phil Jackson is my coach. He spoke to my wife earlier. That was a good thing. I appreciate him for doing that. He gets me some cool points with my wife.”

Q: Can you win a championship in L.A.?
A: “We can definitely win a championship. Oviously, we have to put that work in and do what it takes to win during the season, build that momentum going towards the playoffs.”