Indiana Pacers forward Ron Artest said Wednesday that he asked coach Rick Carlisle for time off because of a busy schedule that included promoting a soon-to-be released rap album, which led to his two-game benching.
Artest held a short news conference before Wednesday night's game against the Los Angeles Clippers, and in his usual ambiguous manner, tried to explain why he was benched.
Artest said that he asked Carlisle for as much as a month off to heal his aching body and recover from a particularly busy schedule.
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So he wanted to take a month off b/c he was heavily promoting his rap album which comes out in a few weeks and THEN he can concentrate on helping Indy. Not cool.
But that wasn't even the best part.
(EDIT: Quote Fix) The interviewers asked him Carlisle saying that he "compromised the integrity of the team." He said (I kid you not, as this is a direct quote from him on Sportscenter): "I don't even know what that means. You guys are gonna have to give me the vocabulary. I've been meaning to ask everybody... my father ...I didn't even find a dictionary yet, but what does integrity mean?"
Meanwhile the Pacers get squashed at home by the Clips by 34. You know something's wrong when even Stephen A. is calling you crazy.
Oh, one last thing:
Main Entry: in·teg·ri·ty Pronunciation: in-'te-gr&-tE Function: noun Etymology: Middle English integrite, from Middle French & Latin; Middle French integrité, from Latin integritat-, integritas, from integr-, integer entire 1 : firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values : INCORRUPTIBILITY 2 : an unimpaired condition : SOUNDNESS 3 : the quality or state of being complete or undivided : COMPLETENESS
I like how ESPN "breaks the story" of Brown being fired and then when they found out he wasn't, suddenly started "refuting the SI.com story that Brown was fired."
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