All we need now are a few more weeks of Artest e-mails to various reporters and his showing up unexpectedly in offseason gyms as he did the other day at the Las Vegas summer league, happy to oblige the notebooks and recorders one way or another. Demanding, pouting, apologizing or professing love and loyalty, it doesn't really matter -- the more Artest talks, the more he looms as a liability for Sacramento. The threat of blackmail by disruption shouldn't be rewarded, but this is pro sports. Guys like Artest, Rasheed Wallace, Allen Iverson or, in the NFL, Terrell Owens and Jeremy Shockey can drive down their own trade value and still end up winning, if they land with clubs they prefer.

So maybe come August or September, a Dallas package of emerging forward Brandon Bass and high-mileage Jerry Stackhouse (a.k.a. expiring $7 million contract) might not seem too lopsided to the Kings to end an Artest circus. Or, just maybe, the Mavericks soften a little on swapping out Howard, whose touches and swingman contributions would drop, anyway, if Artest were around. Howard averaged 19.9 points and 7.0 rebounds last season, while Artest was at 20.5 points, 5.8 rebounds and 3.5 assists.