During an interview following a rough Game 2 against the Lakers, Ron Artest said the physicality of the game does not phase him. He says his childhood pickup games brought much more physicality.
He recalled a situation where a fight broke out during one of those physical pickup games and led to one of his friends getting stabbed to death in the heart with a table leg! Lloyd Newton, a 19-year-old basketball player, was the person who was killed at the YMCA tournament in Niagara Falls. While on his way to the hospital, Newton died due to his brutal wounds. Brian C. Young, the man who was convicted of stabbing Newton, was charged with second-degree murder.
Artest in his postgame interview versus the Lakers, says he “grew up fighting on the basketball court”.
