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The Toughest guy in the NBA

Who is the toughest guy in the NBA? Jerry Stackhouse is one, I wouldn’t want to mess with Matt Harpring, Ime Udoka is another, and DJ Mbenga is 7 feet tall, 260 pounds and has a black belt in Judo. What’s funny is, so many people think that NBA players are thugs, but it couldn’t be any farther then the truth. Sure every professional sports league has its riff-raff, but for the most part, NBA players are a bunch of nice guys. With the success of MMA and the UFC, I thought it would be an interesting question to answer; who is the toughest guy in the NBA?

After going through the NBA rosters, I realized that the tough guy left the NBA right about the same time as Charles Oakley did. In the old days, everyone had an enforcer; guys like Maurice Lucas, Rick Mahorn, and Wes Unseld were on every NBA roster. To a lesser degree Truck Robinson, Ken (The Animal) Bannister and San Antonio’s bruise brothers (Mark Olberding and Dave Corzine) were also gainfully employed. Now that David Stern has fixed the NBA, there is only one real tough guy left, and that is Ron Artest.

Ron was raised in the Queensbridge projects in New York, by his dad Ron Sr. and his mom Sarah. Ron Sr. is a Navy veteran and a former Golden Gloves boxer out of the Philadelphia area. He taught Ron Jr. how to box, hoping that the sweet science would keep him off the streets and out of trouble. Young Ron always had a volatile temper, and his dad feared that it would get his son into trouble, so he tried to discipline him through boxing. Ron Sr. wanted his son away from the drugs and violence that infested his neighborhood, but found out that the boxing element only intensified it.

At eight years old, young Ron had his first anger management class after putting his arms around another boy’s throat in a school cafeteria. The guidance counselor suggested basketball might be a better outlet for Ron’s emotions. Ron Sr. had this to say about his son, “Maybe it’s because of the neighborhood, some people have [a temper], and some people don’t. He’s never hurt anybody, never killed anybody. It’s just part of him. He doesn’t have a criminal or thug bone in his body.”

Ron Artest Jr. was just beginning to grow up, and had a difficult time with some of the realities that life would bring. Situations like his parents’ divorce and the death of his baby sister Quanisha from SIDS in 1995 only made it worse for young Ron, as who wouldn’t be emotionally scarred from similar tragedies.

So Ron Artest took his heart and soul and put it on a basketball court. He became one of the toughest most physical players to ever play the game. Ron developed a style of defense that no one wanted to play against. In college, he stayed local at St. John’s, and took them to the Elite Eight as a sophomore. Afterwards he declared for the NBA draft and was on the board when the Knicks were selecting. Every Knick fan in attendance was relishing the thought of Ron staying home, but it was not to be, as the Knicks selected Frederic Weiss from France with the pick.

Jeff Van Gundy later said that they were unsure how Ron would react to playing in New York, as being one of the deciding factors. At the time the Knicks had Latrell Sprewell playing the three and wanted to get on the European Center Express after Cleveland’s early success with Zydrunas Ilgauskus, who the Knicks passed on three years earlier. A mistake that has haunted the Knicks ever since.

Ron entered the NBA signed his first deal, and practically gave his money away to family and friends until he was nearly broke. To this day, he is yet to sign a contract that meets his very high skill level, but I expect that to change next summer when he is an un-restricted free agent.

As the Lakers pursue Ron Artest, there is an apparent divide as to whether they should or not. Some cite the brawl at Auburn Hills as the main reason they shouldn’t. How many people reading this article would not go after someone who douses them with a full cup of Coke thrown from close range?

All of Artest’s teammates like him a lot, and many such as Trent Hassell have credited him with helping them work on their game and teaching them the finer points of defense. I think the problem with Ron, is that too many people are afraid of him, and would rather watch a weaker player that’s more approachable. Not me, Ron Artest is one of my favorite players because of the way he plays the game. I look forward to watching him play, regardless of what uniform he wears because he is one of the 10 best players in the NBA.

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 13th, 2008 at 1:56 pm and is filed under Ron Artest. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.