Sounds like the Maloofs are officially entrenched in the Ron Artest experience these days.
The enigmatic forward, who recently suggested a possible name change to Bill, has continued to complain about his situation in Sacramento, and ownership is not happy.
As reported by the Sacramento Bee's Sam Amick:
"He has to balance the way he acts," Joe Maloof said by phone. "He's got to control his emotions a little better. You've got to try and keep your cool a little bit.
"Take a deep breath and quit flying off the handle with comments that don't make sense. I hate to say it that way, but that's how I feel. It doesn't make sense to me."
"(Artest's comments have) never changed our opinions of him," Joe Maloof said. "We brag about him every chance we get. We speak out about how appreciative we are for everything he's done. And he's done a lot. People like him. We like him. He's just got to settle down."
Oh, boy. One can only imagine how much Artest relishes being told to settle down.
As Amick mentions in his piece, Artest has gone on a media offensive, e-mailing both ESPN and the Bee with regularity to express his displeasure with being in Sacramento. While there is plenty of time between now and the start of the season, it looks like Ronnie is going into his full-fledged patented team-killer mode. Here's wondering if the Maloofs have about had enough, because while I don't disagree with Joe's comments, it's hard to imagine that a public slap-down is the way to get through to Artest. That being said, who knows what is?
I can only imagine Tom Ziller's headache right about now.