Forget Championship; Ron Artest Should Guarantee End of Lockout

Ron Artest is taking advantage of the NBA lockout, using his suddenly free time to build the Artest/World Peace brand. From his flirtations with English hoops and soap operas to joining the new cast of ‘Dancing With the Starts’, Ron Ron stays relevant.

Artest’s latest headline grabber was a not-so-shocking guarantee that the Lakers would win the NBA title in 2011-12. Mind you the only reason this Rex Ryan-esque prognostication made news is simply because there is much else newsworthy in basketball these day.

Now if Ron (aka Metta) really wanted to make a bold prediction he’d have said the NBA season will begin on time. After all, the Lakers can’t win a title if there’s no season. Guaranteeing a championship amid a lockout is a little like promising to repay a loan when you’re broke. Actions speak louder than words. Certainly Artest knows that.

While Ron did offer some encouraging words of supposed progress made in the most recent bargaining session he didn’t fully commit to saying the season would start on time.

"“A week ago I expected us not to play until January (or) February, but now I have a good feeling we might have one on time. It seems like we might possibly have a season. I’m hearing progress in these last couple days. I haven’t heard this all summer. I’ve heard people not even talking, going to meetings, showing up.“But now I’m hearing some very good things and I’m very excited.”"

I don’t want to be the dude relieving myself in Ron’s Apple Jacks but just think about this little conundrum. That an NBA player would feel more comfortable guaranteeing a title after his team was beaten in the playoffs worse than Keith Closs outside a nightclub yet would dance around promising the lockout will be lifted says a lot.

It says we’re nowhere near being out of the woods yet. Truth be told, we could just be stepping foot into this forest.

If the season does start on time you can bet that we’ll circle back to this tidbit of news. Until then any guarantee about an at-the-moment fictional NBA season is as useless as a promise from LeBron James.