You probably know the story by now. Kings and Pacers agree to Artest/Peja swap. Artest says he doesn’t want to go to Sactown. Kings pull out of deal. Pacers and Artest to meet tomorrow.

In that meeting, I’m pretty sure that Donnie Walsh and Larry Bird are going to tell Ron Artest that if he doesn’t report to Sacramento like a good boy, that he’ll be sitting out for the entire year. I don’t believe they’re bluffing.

And that can’t be an option for Artest. He missed all of last year, and most of this one. At some point, if you want to resume your NBA career, you’ve got to show that you have some kind of passion for the game. You’ve got to demonstrate that you want to be back on the court. The one nice thing that people have always said about you is that you’re a gamer, and that you show up and play hard. If you don’t still have that going for you, then… you’re kinda screwed, Ron.

We all get that you’re crazy. You’re a different kind of guy, you’re very special, and that’s great. But you need to play basketball. For the good of your own career, just go play in Sacramento. Hell, you might like it. It’s a very small market, you can stay out of the spotlight (if you so chose) and work on rebuilding your career. You’ll have owners who will bend over backwards for you, you’ll have a permanent hook-up in Vegas, and oh yeah, you’ll be playing basketball again. That’s good, right?

The whole thing has just become bizarre… sad, really. I miss watching Ron Artest play basketball. It’s almost a parody of itself. If the trade does go through, we’ll talk more about it later.