Ron Artest has Lakers all a-Twitter
When the Lakers signed Ron Artest as a free agent last July, they knew there would be days like this.
The unpredictable Artest took an angry stroll into cyberspace, sending out a series of Twitter messages Thursday criticizing Lakers Coach Phil Jackson and owning up to it after practice Friday when shown a copy of the dispatches, nodding and saying, “I’ll handle it.”
Shortly thereafter, while talking to reporters, Artest said he wasn’t mad at Jackson and shrugged when asked if he had sent out the messages, or “tweets,” instructing media members to read them again.
“I’m only talking to you about basketball,” Artest said Friday, a day before the Lakers play Game 3 of their playoff series against the Utah Jazz in Salt Lake City. “Twitter is for my fans.”
Artest is active on the social networking site, often sending out updates about where he dines or, earlier this season, at what nightclubs he is appearing.
The messages began Thursday at 9 p.m. with a statement that read: “Finally Phil Jackson didn’t mention me in media before talking me Now I can build on game 2. Hopefully he talks to me before the media.”
Then came the second dispatch, an hour later, also unedited: “Ever since phil mention things about me in media before coming to me first I was weird. So every pray he can somehow close his yapper and now say AMEN.”
The third post, an hour after the second one, said that: “Its just something that I have to get use to. He is a different stlye coach. Just bad timing during playoffs and midseason for me!!
“I think right now the team is improving so we just need to keep building or moving ahead or forward. Locking down etc....”
Jackson had praised Artest’s defense throughout the playoffs but told reporters last week he wanted the Lakers forward to reduce his three-point attempts and pass the ball more often.
Artest is shooting a dismal seven for 42 (16.7%) from three-point range in eight playoff games. The Lakers lead the Jazz, 2-0, in a best-of-seven series.
The franchise was also irritated because Artest showed up late to Thursday’s practice without telling any Lakers officials he was at a funeral for a music executive.
On Friday, Jackson seemed more amused than anything when told of Artest’s Internet activity. He was later seen leaving the Lakers’ training facility with a printed-out copy of Artest’s cyberwords in his hand.
“I’ve been very up front with him about his three-point shooting,” Jackson said. “I had a player once who was one of the great bench players, Toni Kukoc, [who] was two for 29 going into the Finals and I used to kid him about it all the time about his percentage and he ended up hitting, like, four in one ballgame against Seattle.
“We expect [Artest] to break out of it at some point, but he’s got to be discriminative of what’s a good shot and what isn’t.”
Is one of the game’s top defenders really that sensitive to criticism that he would use Twitter to express his concerns?
“I guess so. I guess he might be a little sensitive,” Jackson said. “I usually tell the truth. I usually don’t pull punches. A person has to withstand that…they have to be tough enough to take that on.”
Artest had a mostly unproductive regular season with the Lakers after signing a five-year, $34-million contract last summer. He was slowed by painful swelling in his feet and acknowledged he needed to drop weight, which he did near the midpoint of the season.
He has made more of an impact in the playoffs, in the first round against Oklahoma City holding MVP runner-up Kevin Durant to 25 points a game and 35% shooting, well below Durant’s regular-season averages of 30.1 points and 47.6% shooting.
“Ron’s been great,” Jackson said. “You still see a little hesitation in his game out there sometimes when he catches the ball as to where the next option goes, but he’s finding his way.”
Before Artest met with reporters Friday, it was unclear if he was the one who posted the messages. His brother, Daniel, wrote on his own Twitter account early Friday that “Whoever hacked [Artest’s] twit page is foul.”
A statement from one of Artest’s representatives also said the account had been hacked.
Artest, however, cleared up the mystery.
Meanwhile, there’s a playoff game to be addressed.
The Lakers have had their way with Utah over the last few years, winning 20 of their last 26 meetings, but there’s one area in which they could improve against the Jazz: Game 3s.
The Lakers endured the same pattern the last two years, winning the first two games of a playoff series against the Jazz before losing Game 3 in Utah.
The Lakers ultimately won both series, but can they change recent history in Game 3s in Utah?
“They’re a great home team,” Kobe Bryant said. “They always have been.”
twitter.com/Mike_Bresnahan
Times staff writer Broderick Turner contributed to this report.
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