Sport-Blog.com

By Ed Jennett

Under the circumstances, they felt that they had no choice. So they made the best trade that was available to them. The Sacramento Kings decision to deal SF Peja Stojakovic for SF Ron Artest may be the biggest gamble of the season. Despite the fact that the Kings owners, brothers Joe and Gavin Maloof, also own casinos in Las Vegas and should be experts on taking risks, Sacramento should have stepped away from the table.

The Kings received a sign, a huge neon sign, of what their future may hold when Artest's agent Mark Stevens said that his client "would not be happy" if he went to Sacramento. This resulted in the Kings backing out of the deal, temporarily anyway. Sacramento should not have been surprised, because when Artest initially made his public trade demand in December he said that if he went to a West coast team he would leave and go play for his hometown club the New York Knicks when his current contract expires in two years.

Artest's trade demand came immediately after the rumor that the Pacers wanted to trade him for Stojakovic started again. Indiana initially tried to make this trade at the 2004 NBA Draft, but Sacramento turned it down at the time.

While Artest is clearly the better player, he is also clearly unstable. The Pacers figured that the Kings would be willing to make the trade because Stojakovic was not getting along with his then-teammate PF Chris Webber. There had been speculation throughout the league at the time that Stojakovic would be the one to go because the older Webber also had a reconstructed knee and a bad contract, all of which made him seemingly untradeable. It was also being speculated because of his feud with Webber that Stojakovic would opt out of his contract after the 2005-06 season and leave the team as an unrestricted free agent.

The Kings turned down the trade and decided to gamble (that seems to be a theme with them) that they would be able to trade Webber instead, thus making Stojakovic happy and keeping him in Sacramento. The gamble initially looked like it would pay off as Webber was traded shortly before the ‘05 trading deadline to the Philadelphia 76ers (albeit only for spare parts) and Artest was suspended for the majority of the season for role in the infamous Brawl at the Palace in Detroit.

But Artest and Webber were not the only ones to have difficult seasons. Stojakovic was not nearly as effective without the low-post scoring and excellent passing of Webber and retired C Vlade Divac. In addition to his skills, the loss of Divac's leadership had a huge negative impact on the Kings, especially Stojakovic. Like Stojakovic, Divac is Serbian and was a role model for him.

Stojakovic's slump continued into this season. So did the rumors that Stojakovic would opt out of contract and leave Sacramento. This led Indiana to offer the Artest for Stojakovic swap again.

After Artest's trade demand and the Pacers subsequent announcement that he would remain on the inactive list until he could be traded, Indiana was bombarded with bad offers. The Pacers then decided to gamble that if they waited after the first waive that they would eventually start to receive better offers. While that did happen, it remains to be seen if the gamble will payoff long-term.

PF Jermaine O'Neal, the Pacers other All-Star, repeatedly told the media that Indiana should swap Artest for their former Pacers teammate Al Harrington of the Hawks or for O'Neal's former Blazers teammate Bonzi Wells of the Kings. O'Neal also went out of his way to explain that the team should not acquire Stojakovic because he is a poor defender and would not fit in with the defensive mind-set of the Pacers.

Ironically the main purpose of bringing in Stojakovic is for his outside shooting to complement O'Neal's low-post scoring. The timing of the trade worked out well as O'Neal is expected to miss the next eight weeks with a torn left groin muscle and the team would have been severely undermanned if the trade hadn't been made. After his injury O'Neal changed his tune and stated that "it would have been a great opportunity to play with a guy like Stojakovic, and I think his ability helps everybody on our team."


The O'Neal/Stojakovic relationship has the potential to quickly turn into another Webber/ Stojakovic feud. That could result in Stojakovic leaving Indiana in the offseason. Since he is an unrestricted free agent the Pacers may not be able to arrange a sign-and-trade because they cannot threaten to match an offer that Stojakovic signs with another club.

From Sacramento's stand point the downside to their gamble is obvious - the high likelihood of more incidents involving Artest.

Both franchises have put their futures at risk with this trade. Although this trade rumor really came true, it might have been better off dying on the vine as most of them usually do.