An Artest's Perspective

An Artest’s Perspective
By Devin Gray

Redemption. It’s sweet for any man trying to recover his image and his sense of self, and it encapsulates Ron Artest’s transformation from NBA shit-disturber to community humatarian.

  Two very contrasting images surround Ron Artest. The first involves infamously being lead out of a brawl with fans at Detroit’s Palace of Auburn Hills with his jersey neck stretched far too low for primetime television. This is public menace Ron-Ron. The second image is Ron today, in true “before-and-after” fashion as he reaches out to children (including four of his own), the community and even puppies. He understands “now I’m at a point in my life where it’s not just about me. I don’t think it’s about you, it’s about the kids.” Lately Ron Artest has curbed his image by first helping himself through anger, parenting, and marriage counseling and he attempts to pass this on through support of mental health awareness, helping people who have no idea who “Kobe Bryant” is.

  Artest has discovered he can use his celebrity for good, but Ron has never been about image, he doesn’t care what people make of him and his antics. He says “I’m the kind of person who’s going to do what I want to do anyway.” He understands that image is only on the surface. Ron’s essential character has always been present, but it is the deeper sense of self that Ron has discovered lately and the rest of the world is catching on, and he’s not done yet with tentative plans to donate his NBA salary to charity. “I wasn’t worried about what people thought. People was calling me crazy when I first started this. I’m not crazy. I’m just trying to help,” he asserted.

  When you Google Ron Artest, the results come up as if telling the story of his life, reading “Ron Artest Lakers, Wife, Hair, Fight, Champions” in that order. In a society dominated by the power of the image the tendency is to stereotype and one-dimensionalise real people into characters. These characters are supposed to contain a finite amount of definitive characteristics to make them understandable, relatable, exploitable and easy to recognize. Ron Artest avoids all of these things.

As Freedarko says “By the time you read this, Ron Artest may be dead, playing in Poland, or out of basketball entirely.” Sure, Ron has always been unpredictable, there’s lots of evidence of his trials as a young and “crazy” NBA talent with little discipline, but the transformation of Ron’s image has lately taken an unexpected turn.

  Ron Artest has recently been described as “selfless,” “humble” and a “hero” to children. He may never shake the role of villain that he once played, and he may be the one that inspired the NBA dress-code and de-ghettoization of the league, but “hero?” Ron Artest has been called many things in his career. For now, an appropriate title may be “Lovable Badass” the name of an art exhibition at Narwhal Art Projects in downtown Toronto, a three-day show beginning December 18, that has been extended because of the show’s success. With his Lakers in town for their yearly beatdown appointment on the Raptors at the ACC, Ron took the time to support this local gathering of artists who celebrate the highs and lows of Ron Artest’s life. 

  Needless to say, Ron was “blown away” by the perspective on his life says organizer and artist Steve Manale who explained “I think he’s a fascinating guy and totally deserving of celebration or examination.” In college at St. John’s, Artest’s first Major was art, so he can appreciate the varying takes on his own transformation. He described the impact of the show saying it was “definitely special. It was unexpected. Overwhelming… it was a total picture” Ron enjoyed the show, interacted with artists, signed various pieces and offered to buy several (including the plastecine bust of himself holding two puppies). He sees recognition like this as representative of the community bond he values where “people gave back to me, so I’ve been trying to give back to others.” These pieces of art are not meant to “fix” the character of Ron Artest into one category or another, but rather to show the contrast between fame and infamy and how sometimes the greatest influences on the game don’t come from simply putting the ball in the net. 

 He has attained redemption on the court providing clutch defense and a knack for being in the right place at the right time with the NBA champion L.A. Lakers. Maybe someday Ron Artest’s image can be salvaged in the public eye, but Ron will always be himself wherever that takes him. As Ron Artest remembers “There was times when I let everything around me kind of raise me, kind of shape me, rather than me shaping myself.” Count on the “new” Ron Artest to continue his Hollywood makeover and NBA winning ways, but always be prepared for the unexpected.