Rodman vs. Artest

The NBA is filled with some interesting characters who come from all sorts of backgrounds. Both on and off the court, there have been some interesting situations occur because of the erratic behavior of these athletes. In today's league, the biggest crazy has to be Ron Artest. Don't get me wrong, Starbury is up there, but not in the same way. The point guard is more disillusioned than just crazy (via his Ustream on July 21, "I'm telling you what it is: I know I'm the best point guard in the NBA. I don't need anybody else to tell me that.")

This past season, many will be quick to point out that Artest was on his best behavior. While this is mostly true, that is in part due to the professionalism of the Houston franchise--Artest's actions were never blown up by the media. The most compelling sign that even when he is most serious about helping his team and laying low from the limelight, he is still the animal he has always been. The biggest game of the year for the Rockets and for Ron Artest, game 7 vs. the Lakers, where is the crazy? Let's look at what could be riding on this game... If somehow the Rockets can pull out the win, they go down in history with one of the biggest playoff upsets of all time and Ron Artest gets the media's love for fighting with this injury ravaged team that couldn't even get to the 2nd round with a healthy T-Mac and Yao Ming. Ron Artest then goes into the offseason with that under his belt and his supposedly best behavior since his rookie year. No doubt he gets the fat contract he always wanted. Answer to the question: no one knows because he just missed the team bus! How did he get to the game then? He jumped on the last Rocket's bus leaving from the hotel which was full of the team's executives and sponsors, and worst their and the players families. As if that isn't bad enough, he jumped on the bus (literally ran and jumped on as it started to leave) in his underwear! Incredible. You can read the full story on ESPN in this article by Bill Simmons, http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/090727.

Since Artest takes the cake these days (if you need more than the above story, here are a couple recent quotes of his: 1. "'Five Dollar Foot-long' is one of the best songs. That's a hot song. You've got the FreeCreditReport.com, and then 'Five Dollar Foot-long' comes on. When 'Five Dollar Foot-long' comes on, they should play that in the club. They should play all those in the club." 2. "It feels like high school again. I had a really good team, and I was a much better leader. When I got in college and the NBA, I became selfish. Now, I'm back to my high school days." and 3. Via his Twitter account, 96TruwarierQB, "You want to see me rock in China? http://bit.ly/nG1lI 7 city's I'm on tour right now! The hood just invaded China http://twitpic.com/aebei"), we are left to wonder, how can the NBA continually allow this kind of behavior from him? If you think it is because the public and media love this stuff, you are sorely mistaken. David Stern knows he can sell the NBA much more effectively by creating a healthy league than one filled with atrocious, unrelatable characters (see years 1980-1999 vs. 1999-2007, specifically Dec. 14, 2004). The thing is, Artest isn't the first crazy player in the NBA and he will definitely not be the last (though his record suspension may last the annals).

Before Ron Ron was around, there was Dennis Rodman. NBA fans today know Artest as the typical "bad boy" of the league, but Rodman did it first and more intense. Dennis the Mennace was a beast of a defensive player like Artest, though not jacked in the same way, he used physicality to get into opponents heads and throw off their games. If you ever need to see how good he was at that, vist youtube for his defense on Karl Malone in the '97 & '98 Finals (then go youtube his WCW fight with Malone).

More importantly, though, the Worm loved being a total freaking weirdo. He died his hair all sorts of random colors, wore a wedding dress on the cover of his autobiography, wrestled professionally, co-starred in horrible action movie with Van Damme and drunkenly married Carmen Electra. While he wasn't the most normal of players while on the pistons, all of the charades listed above came after the 1992-93 season when Rodman was found alone in his car with a loaded rifle. He admitted in his biography that he was thinking about suicide, but decided instead to just let himself be who he was and not who he thought he should be. Turned out that was a pretty strange guy.

Artest may have the title now, but he still has ways to go to claim the spot as craziest NBA player ever.