So what Ron Artest asked to be traded! If anyone out there thought that this season would end with Artest in a Pacers uniform, then you seriously don't grasp the surrealness of professional sports, and the never ending inevitabilities that exist therin. Artest leaving Indiana this seaosn was as sure of a thing as T.O. blowing up the Eagles franchise, and as sure as I was that Tookie Williams was going to "bite it" as well.

All things considered, Ron Artest is a  pretty scary cat to the regular joe. I mean he's like six feet eight inches tall, and weighs about two hundred and fifty pounds. He's a big bad hip-hop guy from one of the roughest housing projects in the city of New York. He has shown a willingness to jump into the stands and punch paying customers in the face, but he's no Tookie Williams.

Nevertheless, Artest almost managed to upstage a real killer Monday night.  As the nation watched every news outlet in the nation descend upon San Quentin to try and save the life of a convicted murderer, who was responsible for helping to organize one of the most violent gangs the Unites States has ever had the priveledge of doing business with (ahem...Rap Music).

I fielded calls from friends all over the country asking me my opinion about Tookie Williams and his situation. My response was clear, without advocating the Death Penalty as right of the government, if you are going to have a system like this in place, then Tookie Williams was definately someone who would've been on the waiting list, and deservedly so.

There is something that inmates say to each other to help "bid", the in-house slang for doing time, and it says..."You might not be in here for what they charged you for, but you are definately in here for something." Tookie Williams was without question responsible for the murder of innocent people, probably on more than one occasion. It kind of goes with the job. It's like Kenneth Lay saying that he had no idea what the numbers were at Enron, then like, what are we paying you for? If you are the leader of a violent gang, I'm pretty sure that things like murder and mayhem would be prerequistes for the position. Sure Williams wrote some nice books for the kids after he had murdered some people, but that's  kind of like telling the state troopers after a high speed chase,  "Well damn officer, I did give you guys some good FOX video!"

So there were the customary celebrities, with their in between my making one hundred million dollars this year, I show up at executions, weddings and Bar Mitzvah's, and all the failed attorneys with thier own television shows trying to fight a constitutional issue that should be debated in court, on cable television. I swear that the sports stations were waiting for the talking heads to pause because at every Death Countdown 2006 commercial, I could switch back to one of the twenty sports stations on cable and get the latest on rapper, I mean basketball player Ron Artest.

Wow! Two thugs, two gangsters, two hardcore brothers, two timezones, eighty stations, either BET or MTV should've had all the exclusive interviews. Arnold playing the part of Donnie Walsh..."If Tookie Williams wants to commit crimes that will gurantee him a death sentence then I will be happy to oblige him, although it kind of causes me to pause because he speaks so well". Artest,of course, is the guy Walsh has to accomadate though, and if he wasn't sleeping on the job he would've had him traded after the first week of the season.

A lot of people are saying that Artest betrayed the Pacer's fans, and organization. I say hogwash. The predicament that Indiana finds itself in is a great example of what the NBA has allowed it's players to become, and now David Stern and company are hoping that things like, a dress code, and no more drafting players out of high school will fix. This is the monster that the league created, now let them deal with it. Ron Artest is being Ron Artest.

When Artest started his tirade this week, my pulse didn't jump a single bit, neither did my interest. In two days NBA teams will start dealing players they want to move anyway, Artest was certainly going to moved by the All-Star break, I knew it, you knew it, squirrels knew it. I don't understand why was it such a big news story? This just in, a multi-millionaire athlete with a penchant for getting into trouble with management goes public about his dissatisfaction about his conditions and demands a trade...yeah...and? Oh...it's Ron Artest...yeah...and?

While on Death Countdown 2006, a gang leader who is sentenced to die for heinous crimes he committed in the past has claimed innocence and says that he would rather not pay the State it's penalty for his crimes, a penalty that he knew existed before he committed his acts...yeah...and?...Oh...it's the guy that Jamie Foxx played in a movie...yeah...and?

What about the good news that went on yesterday like Colin Farrell finally going to rehab (did you see Phonebooth?), or Prince William saving a fake life, (and it wasn't his own!) Or Beyonce deciding to stay single (look for the Jay-Z ballad album to hit stores on Valentine's day). No, I had to watch two people, two knuckleheads, two manipulative opportunists, fill the drug that is live television with more of the same old, same old, same old, crap. I'm getting bored. Susan Johnson, you now have my opinion.

Where are Beavis and Butthead when you need them?