Artest is a giver

To react to his recent suspension, Ron Artest had to be tracked down, in of all places, Kenya. Artest was on an African goodwill mission when he received official word of the suspension. Artest left the country last week as part of an NBA Players Association convoy spearheading a "Feeding One Million" drive, which calls for union chief Billy Hunter and his traveling party to distribute 11 million pounds of rice to the needy in Kenya

When reached Sunday by ESPN.com, Artest responded via e-mail, "I want to apologize to my family, the NBA, the players association, the Kings, New York City, Hank Carter and the Wheelchair Charities and all my supporters for putting myself in a position to be suspended," Artest wrote.

He continued: "I am doing many positive things this summer. ... Me, Maurice Evans, Theo Ratliff and Etan Thomas are holding HIV babies and walking around in the slums where kids have no running water or electricity and no shoes on their feet, feeding rice and beans to kids. So it's hard to take my focus off of the poverty in Kenya right now, the continent where my ancestors were brought to America as slaves. I'm so happy to be in Africa helping, so whatever the NBA did to me and Stephen Jackson, I can't think about right now. I am happy to be in the NBA and looking forward to next season. "I also encourage people to help the Feed The Children foundation and [founder] Larry Jones, because I see for my own eyes the impact it's having on poverty across the world."

What the hell was this caravan of NBA players thinking when they brought Artest to Africa? I mean the guy can’t even feed his own dogs, let alone a starving continent. And seriously, holding HIV babies? Unless he’s Christ, that ain’t going to do jack all. Africa has had it bad enough, the last thing they need is another thug over there ripping off their foreign aid supply.