If You Mess With the Rockets, You Mess With Ron Artest

Earlier today, Nate Jones broke down the ways in which Ron Artest is already paying dividends for his new team. But there's another role Ron-Ron can play on the club besides being an all around contributor, and that's the one of enforcer. Check out Artest running in to make sure no one messes with his big man, Yao Ming.



Reggie Miller goes on and on about how Artest wasn't doing anything but trying to pull Yao away from the confrontation, but I'm not so sure. Initially he goes straight to the middle of the huddle, and makes contact with Josh Howard, who was chippy with Yao all night long.

There's definitely a reputation issue when you talk about Ron Artest. But any player that aggressively comes running into the frame to interject himself into a situation -- and makes contact with an opposing player while doing so -- is going to get T'd up, every single time.