Ventre: Artest puts everything in jeopardy for Lakers

LOS ANGELES - Imagine if you will a basketball prototype, an NBA general manager’s dream: Big, strong, tough, competitive, can shoot from outside, can drive to the hoop, and best of all, plays defense as if the opponent insulted his mother.

The one drawback is availability, because he happens to be in an insane asylum.

That isn’t exactly the case with Ron Artest, but it’s not that far off, either. The Lakers and Artest reportedly have agreed to work together. And if Kobe Bryant thought the next great challenge in his illustrious career would be to repeat as NBA champion without Shaquille O’Neal, now he has the added duty of serving as therapist.

The Lakers sent some shock waves through the Association on Thursday night when it was reported they had come to terms on a three-year, $18 million contract with the free agent forward. That means they will let Trevor Ariza go, and Ariza seems poised to replace Artest in Houston.

On paper, it’s an upgrade for the world champions. Artest, 29, is more experienced and more tenacious. Although the 24-year-old Ariza was an excellent defender himself, Artest takes the art of guarding other teams’ stars to nasty heights. If Kobe is the Black Mamba, the most lethal snake in the world, Artest is one of those daredevils on “Animal Planet” who is able and eager to tangle with such a creature. He can now torment the other teams’ stars while dressed in Lakers finery.

And Ariza has tentatively proved himself, but not completely. After nondescript stints in New York and Orlando, he found a home in Los Angeles these past two years, and used that comfort zone to develop into a valuable outside shooter and an opportunistic defensive player. But it’s unclear whether he has the kind of talent that lasts, or if next year he would become another Sasha Vujacic, a player who exhibits his wares to get a chubby contract and then immediately disappears off the radar.

In a 10-year career with the Bulls, Pacers, Kings and Rockets, Artest has always averaged double figures, and has always been the best defender on his team (although Shane Battier was right there with him in Houston).

He has also always been a problem.

Unfortunately for him, Artest has received more attention for his antics than his basketball ability. The most infamous incident was the Malice at the Palace, the Pacers-Pistons brawl that saw Artest receive a suspension for 73 games and the playoffs. But he also flaked in Indiana when he asked for time off to promote an album on his rap label. Early in 2007 while in Sacramento, Animal Services took away his dog because it wasn’t being fed enough. Just over a month later, Artest was arrested for domestic abuse.

As recently as the 2009 NBA playoffs Artest went berserk in a game at Staples Center against the Lakers that the Rockets still had a chance to win; instead, he got himself ejected.

Ariza may not be Artest’s equal as a player, but he was a good citizen, quiet, unassuming and the last guy on the floor who would ever need to be restrained by teammates.

Now that Artest is a Laker, he isn’t just Jerry Buss’s problem, or Mitch Kupchak’s problem, or even Phil Jackson’s problem. He is, first and foremost, Kobe Bryant’s problem.

It’s one thing to admire Artest’s fiery personality and competitive edge from afar, and also to do so when playing against him. It’s quite another to share the same locker room with him. Kobe will have to keep Artest in line. He’ll have to talk Artest down when he is jawing uncontrollably with an official. He’ll have to work to raise his confidence when his mood swings the wrong way.

It can’t be understated how important chemistry is on a team contending for a championship. Chemistry doesn’t mean everybody has to play softball and eat pizza together, but it does mean that everybody has to find a way to put aside ego and personality quirks and work together for the common good.

Artest has always been that guy out on an island. He’s likable enough, but for every smile and joke he offers he also seems to create a distraction.

Bryant has been spoiled, because he never has had to deal with anything like Artest. The friction with Kobe and Shaq was largely over control of the team’s direction; for all of the big man’s bluster, he isn’t a lunatic and he hasn’t gotten in trouble with the law or even the NBA office.

Last season was as copacetic as it has ever been for Kobe in the NBA. He had the perfect mix of agreeable veterans and hungry youngsters, and they all looked to him for leadership, which he provided in bushels. The Lakers came off the loss in the 2008 NBA finals to the Celtics with intense determination to come back and win it this year, and that they did.

But now Kobe, for perhaps the first time in his career, will have to babysit. He likes Artest, even though the two have often had brutal Ali-Frazier-like confrontations on the hardwood. Yet there is a faint resemblance to the Carson Palmer-Chad Ochocinco relationship looming: It’s one thing to share the ball, it’s quite another to invite him to live in your home.

It’s not an exact analogy, but the essential elements of possible doom exist.

Kobe and the Lakers have invited Artest into the sacred bosom of their family. A lot of families have survived the presence of a crazy person in their midst. But that doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy.

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