Letters: That’s Ron Artest for you

Ron Artest will always test the patience of his coach, teammates and fans for one simple reason. His on-court activity is at all times governed by instinct and never by thought. The same instinct that told him in the final minute of Game 5 to launch a three-point shot early in the shot clock also told him to follow Kobe’s miss with a game-winning putback.

Like it or not, that’s what you get with Ron Artest.

Alan Abajian

Alta Loma

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Ron Artest took a chapter out of Lamar Odom’s book: Better to be lucky than good.

Craig P. Fagan

San Diego

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Any chance we can enter Ron Artest in next year’s All-Star three-point contest so he can get this out of his system?

Marc Fein

Los Angeles

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There are plenty of people who may not see Ron Artest has the brightest bulb in the pack, but his putback spoke volumes about a guy who gives everything he has when he is on the court. There are no plays off. There is no time to relax. He has the toughest assignment every night. And in the final analysis, he wanted the ball more than Jason Richardson.

You can say what you want about Ron Artest, but do not ever say that he does not lay everything on the line, every night. Do not say that he plays just for himself. Something is different this year for Ron Artest. He want to win his first NBA championship and his play may well have saved that opportunity. He is a rebel . . . with a cause.

John Leonard Harris

Lincoln, Neb.

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Ron Artest makes the winning shot after a brain freeze could have cost the Lakers Game 5.

Just shows why a coach is so important, to keep telling players what they should be doing, and how distressing it is that a person making so much to play a game seemed to have so little clues about end-game strategy and clock management.

Barry Levy

Hawthorne

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If fouls were called on just one-quarter of the actual fouls committed against Kobe, he might have as many free-throw attempts this playoffs as Kevin Durant — who hasn’t played since the first round.

Jeff Nuzzi

Pasadena

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Bandwagon Bill Plaschke is at it again. On Monday, he had the Lakers leapfrogging the Suns on their way to Boston. Sit Bynum, he said, and rest him for the series that really counts. Now, on Wednesday, Plaschke says the Lakers “will soon be minus their second consecutive championship.”

Perhaps there’s a reason they play the games, Bill. Which bandwagon will you ride next?

Rhys Thomas

Valley Glen

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I know letters should be written with words fit to print, but there are no fitting words for how bad Jordan Farmar, Shannon Brown and Andrew Bynum are. The next time they play defense will be the first and the next time they make a positive difference will hopefully be playing for another team.

As I have said for two years, Bynum, injury or no injury, will go down as the worst signing in Lakers history. Period. He should be renamed “The Wiz” as he models his game after the Scarecrow (no brain) and the Tin Man (no heart). Farmar couldn’t guard a player sitting on the bench, so you know how bad it is when that player is actually in the game. Poor Shannon Brown — after his debacle during the dunk contest, he has taken his game to new levels. He actually thinks he’s a basketball player. He is making that possible because he cannot shoot and cannot defend.

Geno Apicella

Placentia

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Am I just imagining it or is “Birdlegs” Bynum morphing into former Dodgers outfielder Mike Marshall, whose every hangnail was an excuse to sit out a game or three?

John R. Grush

Mission Viejo

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Can they make those Lakers flags fly at half staff after losses?

Ron Wolotzky

Los Angeles

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With Shaq probably playing his last NBA game, here’s hoping Dr. Buss takes his time retiring his Lakers jersey on the Staples Center wall. Why reward such a classless exit as Shaq exhibited when he commented on Buss’ dating life and accelerated his ongoing feud with Kobe Bryant with a tasteless rap? Make the Big Bitterness stew on his actions awhile.

George Metalsky

Redondo Beach

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There are two reasons I am rooting for Boston to beat Orlando.

(1) If the Lakers beat Phoenix, they will have home-court advantage.

(2) I won’t have to read your persistent misuse of the singular, instead of the correct plural, when talking about the Magic.

Richard McCurdy

Burbank

Will they pay?

Anyone who thinks that the McCourt divorce isn’t affecting the Dodgers’ payroll must be living in an alternate universe. Interestingly enough, the money they’d have to spend on Roy Oswalt for the rest of the year is almost exactly what Frank has to pay his wife in order for her to maintain (among other things) her separate Malibu laundry room.

Bottom line: As long as attendance doesn’t falter too much, don’t count on it. As strange as it may sound, the only way we will see a better team is when the fans say “enough” and stop going to the games.

Susan Thompson

Perris

Lima time

I always say that there are three Dodgers games that are the best I ever attended, all from 2004 — the Steve Finley walkoff grand slam game, a Dodgers-Yankees game, and Jose Lima’s complete game against St. Louis in the playoffs.

Lima spent just one year with the Dodgers, but it was enough for him to leave a lasting impression. Not only was he a great pitcher, he was a fan favorite as well.

And what wasn’t to love?

I remember watching him while he was in the dugout, when he would randomly start throwing baseballs into the stands.

I remember sitting by the Dodgers’ bullpen, where Lima would lean up against the fence and just chat with whoever wanted to talk.

There aren’t a lot of players like him around anymore.

We’ll miss you, Jose, and it will always be Lima Time in Los Angeles

Dan Cromar

West Hills

The big redhead

T.J., thanks for a beautifully written column. When I saw Bill Walton’s photo on Page 2, I knew I was in for something special.

I’ve always admired Bill Walton, mostly for his independent thinking, his humanity, and his ability to overcome so many obstacles (going all the way back to the speech defect he conquered as a young man).

I guess what’s most inspiring and reassuring for me is seeing Walton emerge from the depths of being all too human, suffering the doubt and even resignation that comes from all types of unremitting pain.

Your story was the perfect introduction to a beautiful SoCal Sunday morning. And the final paragraph ought to be etched in stone.

Jack Von Bulow

Temple City

Our fault?

As a longtime subscriber to your paper, I am outraged at your lack of coverage of the French Open. I grudgingly understand why daily tennis news is relegated to a small blurb on one of the last pages of the sports section, but, as John McEnroe would say, you cannot be serious! It is not as though there are not interesting stories to cover. The King of Clay, Rafael Nadal, is hoping to regain his crown. The Williams sisters are seeded first and second in the tournament. Roger Federer is continuing his march through the Grand Slam record books.

Please get it together. You have until Wimbledon. Wimbledon 2010. You must have heard of it.

Amy Kaufman

Huntington Beach

Hitting the cycle

Diane Pucin writes that Floyd Landis’ confession and allegations of doping cast a “long shadow” over this year’s Amgen Tour of California bicycle race. Nope: That shadow is long only from the perspective of a writer captivated by the bright lights of the media while holding those lights. For the rest of us, the sun shone far more strongly on an exciting race over challenging terrain, populated by inspiring athletes who poured their hearts out and embraced the biological passport program, because they want to win straight up, no tricks.

Pucin quotes their grief at being hounded by media about drug use to the near exclusion of genuine race coverage, then confirms her role in that by assigning final meaning to her own long shadow. Like drug use in many sports, maybe that used to be a winning strategy for selling papers, but has anyone checked the sales trend lately?

Gary Keene

Altadena

That’s cold

I can see it now, San Diego vs. Tampa Bay in the sub-zero, snowstorm-of-the-decade Super Bowl. Paramedics working overtime to resuscitate the old wealthy corporate elite. Bon Jovi and Springsteen strolling out in their walkers for the halftime show duet. And Jimmy Hoffa rolling over in laughter. What is Roger Goodell thinking!

Jeff Black

Beverly Hills

I have no problem giving a cold weather Super Bowl to the New York/New Jersey area as long as each and every owner who voted for it sits outside in the cold and not inside a warm luxury box.

Erik Schuman

Fountain Valley

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