Artest rehabilitates big- brawler image

Pacers forward says NBA suspension showed importance of being team player

INDIANAPOLIS — An hour after igniting a brawl at The Palace at Auburn Hills by confronting a Detroit Pistons fan who threw a beverage at him, Indiana Pacers forward Ron Artest settled into the team plane, pulled out his BlackBerry and began writing the rap song that he says changed his life.

“ It took me about 10 or 15 minutesto get it

down,” he says of the opening

verses to Ain’t Easy, Part “ It allowed me to put my feelings into

words, to calm myself down, to

get an understanding of what had

just happened.”

Eleven months later, Artest maintains he has undergone a renaissance, after serving the NBA’s stiffest non-drug- related suspension ( 73 games), forfeiting $ 5.4 million in salary and being sentenced to 60 hours of community service and a $250 7 ne for pleading no-contest to misdemeanor assault and battery charges. And after ballooning at one point to 284 pounds.

When he and the Pacers open the regular season Cost the team: Without Artest, a former defensive player of the year, the Pacers struggled last year. in Orlando on Nov. 2, Artest, 25, promises he will be a much improved player, a more generoust eammate and a wiser man.

“ I’ll still play like a wild animal on the court, but I’m going to be more thoughtful about keeping my emotions in check,” says Artest, a 6- 7, 255- pounder with the strength to body up forwards and the quickness to shadowshooting guards.

“ When you’re thinking about the team and about winning, you’re not thinking about anything else. Anything that’s going to get you sidetracked, you can pretty much just throw it out the window. So I’m notworried about losing it.”

Practically from the moment he 7 rst picked up a

By Bill Kostroun, AP