In an interview following the Lakers’ rough Game 2, Ron Artest stated that the physics of the game didn’t move him in stages. He says his childhood pick-up game brought much more physicality.
He remembered a situation where a battle broke out in one of those physical pick-up games and one of his friends was stabbed in the heart with a table leg and died! 19-year-old basketball player Lloyd Newton was killed in a YMCA tournament at Niagara Falls. Newton died of a brutal wound on his way to the hospital. Brian C. Young, convicted of stabbing Newton, was charged with his second murder.
In a post-match interview with the Lakers, Artist said, “I grew up in a fight on the basketball court.”
