Crazy Ron?

So apparently the Lakers have signed Ron Artest. And Houston has signed Trevor Ariza.

Sigh.

I know, I know. This is actually an upgrade. Crazy Ron is still a better shooter than Trevor and remains an accomplished defender. His contract is only 3 years long, while Ariza got 5, so when the NBA salary cap drops for a couples years in a row, the Lakers are less screwed than they could be.

But the whole thing is just so dumb. Ariza took the SAME amount of money he was offered by the Lakers to play on a fundamentally fucked team. The Lakers offered the same amount of money to a crazy asshole who I can't stand, and who punched a fan in the stands, and who yelled in Kobe's ear like it was his job. It makes business sense, but goodness, I was much happier when Ariza was a Laker and Artest was a Rocket.

The Lakers needneedneed to sign Odom. If nothing else, he's proven his worth in the playoffs.


Miscellany:

• The Angels are currently leading 1-0 on a Bobby Abreu homer. Let's hope for more of those.
• Mark pointed this out to me earlier today. It's something I've seen before but never mentioned here...pretty cool.
• I own two fish, Drama and Turtle, and if you'd like to watch them swim around, they're on my webcam. At night, it's dark, so you won't see anything.
• The article I mentioned earlier today doesn't get published until July 13th in ESPN the Magazine, so I have no idea why I can read it on my phone in class.