(The Commissioner assures Ron that all that talk of frosted hair and greasy people is an exaggeration).
After far too many hours and too many versions of what happened yesterday as related by Jim Gray, Sacramento are finally satisfied that Ron Artest will meet his contractual commitments ; while the Kings have shipped Peja Stojakovic to Indiana
Gray specified this evening that “the Maloof Brothers were behind the trade and Geoff Petrie and the coaching staff were in favor of it”. But perhaps not the entire coaching staff, as the New York Times’ John Eligon reveals.
Kings Coach Rick Adelman, whose first season as the Kings’ coach was Stojakovic’s rookie year, did not seem ecstatic about the trade.
“We’ve been together since Day 1,” Adelman said. “So when you trade a guy like that, that was tough.”
Throughout the process, Adelman said, Stojakovic “seemed to become a footnote.”
“And that really disturbed me,” he said.
Asked if he felt the risk of trading for Artest was worth it, Adelman said: “I didn’t do this. If you’re going to ask that question, better ask the people who had made those decisions. I’m just going to coach the team.”