Doesn't Pay to Be Honest In Sports

Ron Artest and Terrell Owens and others believe they are being paid to play their sport, when the media and team officials think they are paying them to play the 'game'. Neither Artest nor Owens will play certain parts of the game. The part they hate most is lying. According to team officials, the media, and most of the sports watching public, athletes, well paid or not, are to follow an unwritten code that mandates lying if it means that your team or teammate or league or sport will be dishonored by your honest opinion. The only exception to this rule is that a player can dishonor other players whom the media or sport officials have labeled as 'problematic'. To avoid this, athletes could refuse to talk to the media, and risk their reputations that way and at the same time get fined by their respective leagues.

What does this have to do with Ron Artest? Artest did not attempt to scuttle the Indiana-Sacramento deal, or at least did not do so with any malice. The Kings, doing their due diligence, asked the Artest if he would be happy playing for the Kings. Artest being Queensbridge through and through responded honestly, that he would not. If being stuck in the middle of Indiana is a problem for Artest, and I am 110% sure that it is, going out to cowtown Sacramento is not a pleasant idea either. The problem is, he honestly expressed how every non-cowtown-wanting-to-go-to player in the league feels.

The Sacramento Kings, accepting the integrity of Artest's statements, rightly and rightfully declined to add on a player who would be unhappy in their town. Good for them, good for Ron, not good for the Pacers, and not good for hegemonic authority over athletes. For that, he is a trouble maker again. Of course the trade went through, but the media portrayal of Ron Artest was clear.

Ask yourself, "what did Terrell Owens say that he didn't honestly believe?"

Andre Smith

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