Lakers Owners Want Artest

Maybe Ron Artest will be connected with the Lakers so regularly this offseason he'll just be acquired by osmosis. As annoying as the microreportage might become, we at FanHouse feel obligated to keep you as knowledgeable as possible about every detail of the Ron-L.A. courtship.

That said: two interesting data points. Sam Amick of the Sacramento Bee -- who has owned this story in the traditional press -- apparently went on the radio in Southern California last week to report a lower-level member of the Buss family (owners of the Lakers) told L.A. general manager Mitch Kupchak to get Artest in a Laker jersey.

ESPN.com's Marc Stein backs this up.

Word is L.A. believes that any fears about Artest's reliability can be assuaged by the fact that Phil Jackson would be coaching him and that Kobe Bryant would be his teammate. Kobe and Ron-Ron share a mutual respect that suggests no threat to the Lakers' pecking order.

Insists one source close to the process: "[Lakers owner] Jerry Buss actually likes Ron Artest's game and his personality."

Buss might be the only person in existence who could make that claim. (I kid, sorta. I'm not a hater, Ron!)

To wrap this up, let's go with the truly bizarre from a Bee blog post by Scott Howard-Cooper, in which, for the first time in his career, Artest doesn't say too much in an interview.