Ron Artest Doing His Jekyll and Hyde Impression

He wanted to "choke" a Rockets player, but calmed down Bynum. Good luck figuring out Ron Artest.

By KURT HELIN

Updated 1:05 PM PST, Thu, Nov 5, 2009

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There is Ron Artest the hot head; the one Kobe Bryant had to help walk away from a confrontation. That side came to the surface Wednesday when former Laker Trevor Ariza and other Rockets players threw some elbows and tried to get physical with the Lakers small forward

"I wanted to (choke Ariza) because he hit me with the elbow," Artest said. "But then I thought about David Stern, and I thought I wasn't going to do this. I got hit with three or four elbows. It's just not fair. I don't want to fight."

Then there is Ron Artest, the calming influence.

Lakers coach Phil Jackson can ride his talented young center Andrew Bynum pretty hard, and he let Bynum know a few things on his mind after pulling the center in the second quarter after Houston had gone on a 6-0 run to tie the game.

Artest came over, moved Adam Morrison down a seat, sat next to Bynum on the bench and talked to the young center to calm him down. During the next timeout, Artest had his arm around Bynum’s shoulder in the team huddle. After that Bynum — who had a history of losing mental focus — came back the rest of the game to have nine points, including hitting the game winning free throw in overtime, 11 rebounds and two blocked shots. Bynum was key to the win that made the Lakers 4-1 on the young season.

Ron Artest can be an enigma. At times thoughtful and witty, at times he is a guy who seems ready to explode (or at least do something crazy, like the word Lakers in Chinese, carved into his hair, his current look). He has admitted to seeing a sports psychologist about that, about bringing his competitive desire into control and channeling it into a positive way. In the past, that desire got the better of him and he got out of control and tried to take over games, often to his team’s detriment.

Wednesday night, Lakers fans thought Artest had hit the game winner — with 30 seconds left in regulation he hit a key three pointer (off an assist form Kobe) that gave the Lakers a comfortable three point lead. He celebrated by going over by the Rockets bench and making the sign for a timeout. (Former Laker Ariza would tie it with three to match.)

"I was advising them to call timeout," he explained sensibly, perhaps just to throw us off.

Unpredictable, two-sided characters are hard not to watch — whether it be Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, or even Two Face from the Batman comic books. We are drawn to contradiction and unpredictability.

Lakers fans are being drawn to Ron Artest.

Kurt Helin has the Chinese symbol for blogger carved into his hair, and runs the NBA/Lakers blog Forum Blue & Gold (which you can also follow in twitter).