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Born and raised in the Queensbridge Projects in Long Island City, New York, he is perhaps the most controversial American basketball player in the game today, mainly because of his involvement in the 2004 Pacers-Pistons brawl.
Early careerArtest played college basketball at St. John's University, and was selected by the Chicago Bulls with the 16th pick of the 1999 NBA Draft. In 2002, Artest was traded by the Bulls to the Pacers, along with Ron Mercer, Brad Miller, and Kevin Ollie, in exchange for Jalen Rose, Travis Best, Norman Richardson, and a second-round draft pick. He is noted as being one of the best defensive players in basketball today, and was voted the NBA's Defensive Player of the Year for the 2003-04 season. In spite of his abilities, he has been the subject of much controversy. During his rookie season with the Chicago Bulls, he was the subject of criticism for applying for a job at Circuit City, just to get an employee discount. He once attended an Indiana Pacers practice in a bath robe. He was suspended for two games in the early 2004-05 season by Pacers coach Rick Carlisle after he allegedly asked for a month off because he was tired from promoting an R&B album for the group Allure on his production label. Artest had also been suspended for three games in 2003 for destroying a television camera in Madison Square Garden, and for four games for a confrontation with Miami Heat coach Pat Riley in 2003. Seemingly embracing his controversial bad-boy status, he changed his uniform number at the start of the 2004-05 season. In past seasons with Indiana, he had worn the number 23 in tribute to Michael Jordan. He has also been suspended several times for excessive flagrant fouls. For the 2004-05 season he wore the number 91; a tribute to Dennis Rodman, another controversial basketball player from the 80s and 90s. After being suspended for the remainder of the season due to his involvement in the "malice at the Palace", Artest changed his number back to the original number he wore for the most part of his basketball life, number 15 (although he switched to number 93 after being traded to the Sacramento Kings).
The Pacers-Pistons brawlOn November 19, 2004, Artest took center stage in arguably the most infamous game in NBA history. The game took place in Auburn Hills, Michigan between Artest's Pacers and the home team Detroit Pistons. It began when Artest gave a hard foul to Pistons center Ben Wallace as Wallace was putting up a shot. Wallace responded by shoving Artest, leading to an altercation near the scorer's table. Artest continued to mock Wallace and lay down on the scorer's table. Wallace then threw a towel at Artest after Artest taunted him and pretended to give a radio interview at the scorer's table. Reacting to Wallace throwing something at Artest, John Green of West Bloomfield threw a cup of beer at Artest, hitting him. Artest jumped into the front-row seats and confronted a man he believed to be responsible (who turned out to be the wrong man), which in turn erupted into a brawl between Pistons fans and several of the Pacers. Artest returned to the basketball court, and punched Pistons fan A.J. Shackleford, who was apparently taunting Artest verbally. This fight resulted in the game being stopped with less than a minute remaining. Artest and two teammates were suspended indefinitely the day after the game, along with Wallace.
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