When Rick Carlisle heaped mountains of praise onto Ron Artest, I suggested that it might send a signal to Artest that the Mavericks would be open to signing him should he opt out of his contract. But in an email to the Sacramento Bee's Sam Amick tonight, he dismissed the idea that he's even thinking about leaving:

The Kings small forward has until June 30 to exercise the early termination option in his contract and become a free agent. As of now, however, he said the option is hardly being considered at all.

"My agent (Mark Stevens) is on a business trip," Artest wrote. "We have not talked about opting out at all. The playoffs just got me thinking that if me and kev (Martin) (played) the majority (of last season) and mike (Bibby) doesnt miss all those games, we could have piled on 12 or 18 more wins. That would have put us at 56 wins and that is still a failure."

The "still a failure" part is kind of confusing. As Amick explains it, anything less than a title is considered a failure for Artest, but considering 56 wins would have put the Kings in the playoffs, I'm not sure why he'd be disappointed. My best guess is that he's referring to the fact that the Lakers won the division with 57 wins.

But despite the ambiguity later, the first part is clear: he's not thinking about opting out.

Rick Carlisle was asked in a Dallas radio interview this week if he'd ever consider a reunion with Ron Artest, and he wasn't able to hide his enthusiasm about the idea. Tim McMahon of the Dallas Morning News transcribed Carlisle's thoughts:

"Of course," said Carlisle, who coached Artest in Indiana. "This guy is one of the real difference-makers that we have in this league. He's had one all-star year; that's when he played for me. I've had a chance to reconnect with Ronnie a couple times over the last couple of years. I love him and I love his family, so yeah. This guy was one of the most physical, intimidating players that I've ever seen at the small forward position, so he'd be a player that any team would want to have."

Now that Carlisle has left his gig as an ESPN analyst and is once again gainfully employed by an NBA team, someone might want to remind him that he doesn't have to say exactly what's on his mind all of the time. Correct me if I'm wrong, but if Carlisle isn't guilty of tampering, he's certainly toeing the line.

The last time we (as a population) saw Bonzi Wells, it was 2006. The Kings snuck into the playoffs on the backs of Ron Artest, Bonzi and upstart 23-year-old Kevin Martin. As the #8 seed, they took a trip to the home of the reigning NBA champs, San Antonio. No one gave Sacramento a chance -- hell, Sacramento really had no chance.

But then something happened. Bonzi happened. In Game 2, with the Kings down 1-0, Wells went ballistic, earning himself 28 points and 12 rebounds (from the two-guard spot) as the Kings lost a heartbreaker on a lucky Brent Barry bounce. In Game 3 in Sactown, Bonzi went for 19 and 14 ... including 10 offensive rebounds, just annoying Duncan and Nesterovic to no end. Kings win (on the most magical shot you ever did see). In Game 4, he offers 25 and 17! Kings win. In Game 5 -- the real crux of the series, the game in which San Antonio can either retake control or the Kings can topple the despot -- Bonzi again goes ballistic, dropping 38 points with 12 rebounds. But the Spurs win, the delusions disappear, and Bonzi puts up a mild 17/11 in the deciding Game 6 blowout. That would be an average of 23 points and 12 rebounds, by a two-guard, against the Spurs, over six games.

Bonzi then turns down a $38 million contract in order to take a $4 million flyer from Houston, sends Jeff Van Gundy a 'Dear John' text message from a Seattle hotel room, and sets himself on fire.

The Phoenix is back, though! Bonzi's no longer a 40-minute type fellow; he received a ration of 18 minutes from Byron Scott last night (against the Spurs). He made the most of them, scoring 10 points on 5-of-9 shooting and pulling in more rebounds (4) than Tim Duncan took in (3) over 37 minutes. Is it something about the Spurs? Is it something about the playoffs? Is it something about Peja-on-a-Stick? I don't know, and I don't care. Bonzi's back, baby, and I couldn't be happier.

A crush of rumors about the future of the Toronto point guard position has been months in the making, first spurred by Jose Calderon's masterful work during T.J. Ford's unfortunate injury absence, then stoked by Ford's (quiet) bristling at coming off the bench behind Calderon. Some Bryan Colangelo comments captured by the Toronto Sun's Frank Zicarelli offer the strongest evidence Ford will be on the market this summer.

Colangelo understands and applauds Ford's desire to be No. 1, but at the same time Colangelo is going to do what's best for the Raptors. "At the end of the day it's how can he and Jose co-exist,'' Colangelo said. "If, in fact, that's a possibility."

Colangelo then added some very telling words. "It's a very safe assumption that Jose will be back in a Raptor uniform."

Calderon's a restricted free agent, and (unless Shawn Marion or Elton Brand opt out) no team will head into July with both cap space and a pressing need at point guard. If that's the case, the only thing that would stop the Raptors from keeping Calderon is Calderon demanding too much money (something that, for some reason, seems unlikely).

Ford's the guy to go, and plenty of towns would invite the upgrade ... for the right price. Injury concerns related to his tricky spine will never disappear; still, he's a fantastic point guard -- one of the fastest guys in the league and an always improving shooter, distributor and passing-lane disruptor. The Knicks, Heat, Clippers (depending on Shaun Livingston), and Kings (depending on Beno Udrih) make sense, on first glance. (Whether Colangelo chases Mike D'Antoni could affect this whole scenario, as well.)

The Sacramento Kings visited the NBA draft lottery for the first time in almost a decade last May; Phil "The Third Brother, Who Runs The Palms Full-time and Once Bagged a Pre-Breakdown Britney Spears and Is, Therefore, Pretty Lucky" Maloof didn't have luck on his side, as the Kings stuck at #10. New year, new plan: The Kings will send a season ticket holder to rep the franchise on ESPN this time.

Once entries (50-word explanation of the person's luck) are in (the deadline's Monday), a Kings panel will narrow down the semi-finalists. Those contestants will go to ARCO Arena to film a short video, and fans will vote on this online. The finalists from there will get drawn out of a hat. The winner flies to Jersey with Phil and sits in the Kings seat as Adam Silver announces Sacramento as the winner of the #1 pick the order for the 2008 draft.

There's a catch: To be a contestant, you have to have had season tickets for 2007-08, and you have to renew your 2008-09 season tickets by Monday. Ploy to incrementally increase the number of season tickets sold, or inventive way to drum up the team's web operations? You decide!

A truncated list of citizens not pleased with Woody Paige's Sunday Denver Post column on the Nuggets: me, Deadspin weekend editor/fine young American Matt Sussman, and Kings head coach Reggie Theus. Paige quoted Theus in the column as walking into the Kings locker room after Sacramento's win and yelling, "Way to beat a horse(expletive) team!"

Theus, um, denied that. From the Sacramento Bee's Sam Amick:

"That's not true," he said when asked. "That's a lie. If anything, I said, 'Way to beat a playoff team.' It definitely wasn't, 'Way to beat a horse (expletive) team.' I wouldn't say that.

"It's unfortunate that Woody's a (expletive) liar. I wouldn't say that about the Denver Nuggets. They're not a horse (expletive) team. George (Karl) is a great coach. Why would I say that? That would be ridiculous."

To recap: It is unfortunate Woody's a (expletive) liar. It is unfortunate Woody's a (expletive) terrible writer. It is unfortunate anyone on this Earth has to pay attention to (expletive) Woody Paige. We good now? No more Woody Paige for a while?

We showed you J.R. Smith's unfortunate bonked windmill earlier and mentioned it loomed large in Denver's eventual 3-point loss to the Kings. There were, of course, other causes -- turnovers galore, a bad night for Allen Iverson, huge scoring nights for Kevin Martin, Francisco Garcia and Mikki Moore.

Whatever the impetus, the result has caused a ton of trepidation in Mile High City. From the Denver Post's game story, by Benjamin Hochman.

You have to be kidding. ... Saturday's loss was inexplicable and inexcusable. ... What an embarrassment.

That was the game story! Columnist Woody Paige, who is possibly the worst living American wordsmith, reacted to the loss by calling for just about everybody's head. (Seriously, unless he wrote that entire "column" on a BlackBerry while strung from his toes upside-down over a pool filled with barbed wire and salt, the Post has no excuse to employ that guy. Awful.)

All the stories from Denver focus on the fact the Kings were without Ron Artest and Brad Miller, two VIPs for the Kings. Of course, they neglect to realize Martin is probably the Kings' best player, and those fellows John Salmons and Garcia are pretty good too. To Hochman and Paige, this was a total shock. Pickaxe and Roll, a Nuggs blog, noted before the game it wasn't a gimme. Maybe the combination of this Kings win -- along with one last week over the Rockets -- will make media folks in future opponent cities prepare for possible defeat.

Every game counts for Denver at this point. And in a tight battle with a randy opponent, every point counts. Either J.R. Smith cannot grasp the concept, or he refuses to care about such mundane concepts.



Denver lost by three points. The Nuggets now sit tied for 8th place with the idle Golden State Warriors.

And no longer just to Kenny Thomas!

Kings owners Joe and Gavin Maloof gave away suitcases full of $100,000 in cash to seven contestants participating in "Oprah's Big Give." From the Sacramento Bee:

"The premise is similar to the pay-it-forward idea," Gavin Maloof said. "They have to try to help as many people as possible."

[...] "It's incredible the amount of organizations and people they were able to help," Maloof said of his experience on the show, which was previously taped. "It's an incredible, invigorating show. It was one of the greatest experiences I've had."

Giving away $700,000 is a wonderful act that shouldn't be marginalized or diminished, but for a couple of guys whose family made its fortune capitalizing on human vices, wouldn't it be cool if one of the contestants donated their suitcase to a local Gamblers Anonymous chapter or some such? Tune in this Sunday to find out. (I kid, but seriously, the Maloofs do deserve props -- they're apparently pretty good at the whole "giving money away" thing, donating $13 million to various Sacramento charities over the past decade, which is approximately $12.9999 million more than me.)

The Sacramento Bee did a cool thing when the Lakers visited the Kings a few weeks ago: They strapped heart-on-his-sleeve Kings owner Gavin Maloof to a heart-rate monitor to see how the spectacle affected his ticker. His heart rate got up to 175 beats per minute... in the second quarter.

After a recent study showed the excitement of spectator sports can trigger serious cardiac problems for some fans, The Bee asked Maloof to help demonstrate his own stress levels during the recent Kings-Lakers showdown at Arco Arena. ...

On the evening of March 4, Maloof's peak heart rate was higher than what most relatively fit people would reach only after 10 to 15 minutes of high-intensity aerobic exercise. Even after the Kings lost momentum in the fourth quarter, Maloof's heart rate never dropped below 100.

The recent study referred to was conducted in Germany during the World Cup. Instances of cardiac arrest during a span rose during German soccer matches, the docs found.

No worries for Gavin, though: Spectator sports only kill when the observer is in poor health. Maybe it's a good thing Jerry Krause left the NBA, after all.