In an e-mail to the Bee late Thursday night, Ron Artest sounded like a man who plans on being in Sacramento next season.
The Kings small forward has until June 30 to exercise the early termination option in his contract and become a free agent. As of now, however, he said the option is hardly being considered at all.
"My agent (Mark Stevens) is on a business trip," Artest wrote. "We have not talked about opting out at all. The playoffs just got me thinking that if me and kev (Martin) (played) the majority (of last season) and mike (Bibby) doesnt miss all those games, we could have piled on 12 or 18 more wins. That would have put us at 56 wins and that is still a failure."
Artest, of course, deemed last season a failure and has taken the general stance that anything less than a championship is a lost cause. On a non-basketball note, he said he's spending part of the offseason organizing a substantial effort to provide scholarships for high school and college students.
"Right now my manager and I are gearing for my excel university foundation," he wrote. "We are preparing a large amount of scholarships for high school and college students. This is very exciting being able to help kids and teens."
Artest is scheduled to be in studio with KHTK's Carmichael Dave on Friday night beginning around 9 p.m. And as a friendly reminder, Artest is believed to be moonlighting as a sideline TV reporter for Saturday's Monarchs regular season opener at home against San Antonio. By the sound of it, it won't be his last appearance at Arco Arena. - Sam Amick
News, observations and reader questions about the Sacramento Kings and the NBA.
May 16, 2008
What You Should Know About Comments on Sacbee.com
Sacbee.com is happy to provide a forum for reader interaction, discussion, feedback and reaction to our stories. However, we reserve the right to delete inappropriate comments or ban users who can't play nice. (See our full terms of service here.)
Here are some rules of the road:
• Keep your comments civil. Don't insult one another or the subjects of our articles. If you think a comment violates our guidelines click the "report abuse" button to notify the moderators. Responding to the comment will only encourage bad behavior.
• Don't use profanities, vulgarities or hate speech. This is a general interest news site. Sometimes, there are children present. Don't say anything in a way you wouldn't want your own child to hear.
• Do not attack other users; focus your comments on issues, not individuals.
• Stay on topic. Only post comments relevant to the article at hand. If you want to discuss an issue with a specific user, click on his profile name and send him a direct message.
• Do not copy and paste outside material into the comment box.
• Don't repeat the same comment over and over. We heard you the first time.
• Do not use the commenting system for advertising. That's spam and it isn't allowed.
• Don't use all capital letters. That's akin to yelling and not appreciated by the audience.
You should also know that The Sacramento Bee does not screen comments before they are posted. You are more likely to see inappropriate comments before our staff does, so we ask that you click the "report abuse" button to submit those comments for moderator review. You also may notify us via email at feedback@sacbee.com. Note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us the profile name of the user who made the comment. Remember, comment moderation is subjective. You may find some material objectionable that we won't and vice versa.
If you submit a comment, the user name of your account will appear along with it. Users cannot remove their own comments once they have submitted them, but you may ask our staff to retract one of your comments by sending an email to feedback@sacbee.com. Again, make sure you note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us your profile name.
About Comments
Reader comments on Sacbee.com are the opinions of the writer, not The Sacramento Bee. If you see an objectionable comment, click the "report abuse" button below it. We will delete comments containing inappropriate links, obscenities, hate speech, and personal attacks. Flagrant or repeat violators will be banned. See more about comments here.