Ron Artest Is a Funny Guy ... and Hopefully a Laker

This isn't so much an article or blog post as it is a story.

First off, I hate this "Twitter society". I reluctantly got a Twitter account recently because it seems as if athletes everywhere are shoving their feet in their mouths on a daily basis. Either that, or screwing with everyone. I made the decision/mistake to follow Ron Artest. Now, he's a funny guy and all but I don't need 50 "tweets" in a span of an hour from him.

Now, Ron-Ron is a free agent and methinks he could be a Laker if the team can't re-sign Trevor Ariza. Today is the start of free agency and Artest is in form. His Twitter page has this whole thing of he "just signed his deal" and he even said a mild good-bye to Houston. He also tweeted that he was playing pool at "Lamar Odums" [sic]. Interesting.

He then tweeted that he'd be on Sacramento's sports radio station soon (I can't remember what the name of it was), so I logged on to the site to listen to the interview. Artest was in full party mode and just playin' the fool. It was a cool laid back interview (the interviewer seemed to have a good relationship with the former SacKing) and Artest was sort-of candid. He talked about Yao Ming being a great guy and how he could or could not be a Rocket next year.

He followed up with a tweet about him getting a $12M deal from the Knicks. Hilarious!

I'm still not a fan of Twitter because of stuff like this. I don't really care about people's mundane thoughts and I'm don't care to respond to any of them. I can also chalk up Artest's Knicks deal alongside Amare Stoudamire's tweet that he is a LA Laker and Chad Johnson's tweet about his fake facial tattoos. April Fools Day was back in April, fellas.

It makes me think about Michael Jackson. Remember back in the Thriller days, he used to leak fake stories to the media as his sort of inside joke that only he got. He leaked that he slept in a oxygen chamber and that he bought the Elephant Man's bones. He pretty much began his tabloid life by creating "Wacko Jacko."

The point is that this is 2009 and you aren't just kidding beat reporters and columninsts. This is the digital age where every Tom, Dick and Harry Butts can take a stupid story and run with it. Kidding your followers (read: fans and curious looky-loos) can lead to them seeing you as a tool.

Again, sorry for this not making too much sense, it is just the thought that crawled up into my skull just now.