When it comes to the most ruthless man in the NBA, everyone's answer may be different, such as the supervillain Bill Lambir, who has wasted many people, Draymond Green, who often uses martial arts, Ron Artest, who elbowed Harden, and so on. These people are indeed ruthless in their own way, and trying to distinguish who is the most ruthless among them may not be able to convince the public.
But if you want to say who is the most ruthless, it is none other than Ron Artest, after all, this guy was ruthless at the beginning, but he was a super ruthless man who could break his ribs in two elbows in a training heads-up with Michael Jordan. Today, let's take a look back at the most nervous ruthless man Ron Artest, and see how he became a charity ambassador step by step.
The tragic experience of being a child created Artest's ruthlessness and nerves
Like most black kids, Ron Artest had an unhappy childhood, so much so that he suffered from a mental illness at an early age – mania, which is the main reason why he was so nervous in the NBA. On November 13, 1979, Ron Artest was born in Queens, New York, where the gap between the rich and the poor is huge, the rich and the slum are only separated by one street, and the Artest family lives in the slum, not only often gangs, but also the drug addicts.
So even if it's just that the environment is bad, little Artest can often see the gorgeous scenery of the rich area across the bridge, which is a very big shock for a child in the mud. As a result, violence and the desire to climb up the ladder have been ingrained in Artest's mind since he was a child, driving him to go out of his way to clear the obstacles.
In fact, the difference in environment is not enough to make Artest's mental problems too big, this is only part of the external cause, the direct cause of his mania is family factors. There are a total of ten people in the Artest family, all of whom are crammed into a two-bedroom house, so it is inevitable that there will be a lot of conflicts. As a result, Artest's father's violent tendencies became apparent, and he began to domestic violence against Artest and Artest's siblings. Although Artest's mother eventually divorced his father, leaving them away from this violent guy, the long-term impact of violence and the loss of father's love caused Artest to be mentally traumatized and suffered from mania.
This mental illness is relatively common among poor black people, so the psychiatrist prescribed him a way to play basketball and let him distract him from sports. It just so happens that Artest has a real talent for basketball, and because his parents divorced, he has no constraints and can play late on the court every day, so whether it is offensive or defensive, he has gradually become the king of their area.
In this way, the 13-year-old Artest rightfully joined an amateur team, Riverside Church, and began playing in the amateur league AAU. As he gets older and the opponent's confrontation intensifies, Artest's mania becomes more and more uncontrollable, as soon as he comes on the field, it is like a dynamite bag lit with a fuse, which may explode at any time, whether it is a teammate or an opponent, it may become the object of his venting. Situations like this didn't even improve until he went to college.
In fact, it can't be said that there has been no improvement, because in a YMCA basketball game in 1991, Artest in the conflict witnessed his teammate Lloyd Newton being beaten to death by his opponent, so since then, Artest's ruthlessness has become hidden, although he often clashes with others, but often he will strike first to avoid repeating Newton's mistakes.
The college years went to the next level, and violence became Artest's weapon on the court
In high school, Artest attended LaSalle College, and the year he graduated, he led the team to an astonishing 27-0 record, and was directly selected for the McDonald's All-American team, becoming the best player in New York that year.
With such strength, as long as Artest is willing to work hard, it stands to reason that it is not a problem to go to a basketball school like Duke, North Carolina, but he finally chose to join St. John's University, which is very close to his home. As for why, it was because of the personal invitation of Fran Fraschglily, the head coach of St. John's University at the time, who promised Artest that he could use violence on the field, and even that he would teach Artest how to use violence without being sent off.
Having watched Artest play and witnessed him clash with others for a long time, Fraschley knew his potential and knew that he was violent enough to make him a superplayer on the NBA Bad Boys. As a result, Artest, who met the crazy coach, played more like a fish in water in college, and in his freshman year, Artest led the college team "Red Storm" to a 22-10 record and successfully entered the NCAA Championship.
In the 98-99 season, Artest was even crazier, averaging 15 points, 6 rebounds, 5 fouls and 4 assists per game, leading St. John's into March Madness under everyone's fearful eyes. After the season, Artest announced that he would participate in the draft and expect to go to his hometown team, the New York Knicks.
However, the Knicks don't want to choose violent elements to make their team's reputation ugly, after all, their team is the most exposed in the league. In the end, Artest was picked by the Bulls with the 16th pick and officially started his NBA career.
It started with violence, and eventually changed by violence
After entering the NBA, Artest's violence has not changed at all, from averaging 12 points, 4.3 rebounds, 1.6 steals and 2.2 fouls per game in the first year, to averaging 11.9 points, 3.9 rebounds, 2 steals and 3.3 fouls per game in the back, and 15.6 points, 4.9 rebounds, 2.8 steals and 4 fouls. For three consecutive years, there has been little improvement in ball skills, but steals and fouls have increased year by year, and the number of fouls has even reached 4 per game, which is simply jaw-dropping.
However, these foul statistics are only a microcosm of Artest's career, in fact, he directly elbowed two ribs in the second year of entering the NBA because Michael Jordan laughed at him, and in the third year, he argued and scuffled with Heat head coach Pat Riley twice, and in the fourth year, he caused a mass brawl, from the player to the fans, and was banned for an entire season.
However, the ban is indeed good for Artest, because there is no salary for this whole season, and Artest can only gnaw on his old book and think about whether he should continue to be so violent. Eventually, in 2007, due to the sanction of the law, Artest began to thoroughly review and correct his violence, dedicate himself to charity, and atone for his crimes.
On March 5, 2007, Artest was arrested on suspicion of two crimes, one is the use of "domestic violence" and the other is to prevent the woman who has been subjected to domestic violence from calling the police, and then Artest was charged with sexually assaulting his own nanny and sentenced to 20 days in prison and community service. It was probably this prison sentence that made Artest understand that violence was not a weapon for his own wantonness, but a Pandora's box to harm himself and others. Therefore, as long as Artest can carry out charity, he will try to do it.
One of the most representative is that in July 2007, as a representative of NBA players, he participated in the "Feeding the Child" charity event in Africa. On February 28, 2010, Artest held a concert to raise funds for anti-youth gangs in Southern California and the health of people in the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti. In September 2010, Artest put his championship ring up for auction online for $2, and all of the $650,000 he received was donated to youth mental health counseling charities and more......
As a result, Artest received the Kennedy Citizen Award for the 10-11 season on April 27, 2011, which recognizes players who have made outstanding contributions to public service and community service during those seasons. Artest also took the opportunity to change its name to Charity, World and Peace.