Ron Artest.

Simply mentioning the name will set off hundreds of thoughts in your mind. Memories of old headlines. Visions of past video highlights.

Unfortunately barely any of these are to do with basketball.

The Eastern Conference should be better in 2008-2009, but it still has a ways to go before matching the Western Conference overall.  Granted, the Boston Celtics proved to be the best team in the league, but the bottom feeders of the 2008 Eastern Conference playoffs – as much noise as they made (In round one, Philadelphia gave Detroit a scare in and Atlanta took the Celtics to seven games) – still have a lot to prove. Consider that the West had six teams last season whose records would’ve afforded them a top three finish in the East. Also consider that the West had three non-playoff teams that would’ve made the playoffs in the Eastern Conference. Finally, consider that the Denver Nuggets, who held the eighth and final seed in the Western Conference Playoffs last season, won 50 games, which was five better than the Cleveland Cavaliers, who held the fourth spot in the Eastern Conference Playoffs.

Everybody knows that Ron Artest has been traded to the Rockets.  It's been major news seeing as he is a high quality basketball player who creates a buzz wherever he goes.

I'm sure that if you look all over the blogosphere you can find content that says that Artest is going to make the Rockets a worse team and that his personality off the court is going to hinder his performance on it.

What a road he has traveled.  From great to disgraced to a tumor on the NBA, Tim Donaghy has been everywhere in the news throughout his road.

It looks like the Houston Rockets will acquire Ron Artest from the Sacramento Kings in exchange for Bobby Jackson, rookie Donte Greene and a future first round draft pick. The deal probably won’t be announced until mid-August, since Greene just signed a contract with Sacramento in mid-July and a player can’t be traded within 30 days of signing a contract.

After a series of moves orchestrated by Western Conference teams such as the Warriors, Clippers, and Jazz, the Rockets have jumped on the offseason player carousel.

Houston acquired Ron Artest from the Sacramento Kings for Bobby Jackson, a 2009 first-round draft pick, and Donte Greene.

More real news from around the league in a time where Brett Favre is dominating the headlines for everything.  So for those of you that love basketball and could care less who Favre may or may not have texted on a phone that may or may not have been issued by the Packers, here is you NBA fix.

So, I scoured the internet in hopes of finding some stories that I can really report without just going on another binge about how Team USA is going to be under pressure or about how Team USA is going to be so good.

On Friday, the Denver Nuggets signed swingman Dahntay Jones to a one year contract filling the holes at shooting guard and further burying J.R. Smith on the depth chart if he returns.

The Denver Nuggets have acquired SF/PF Renaldo Balkman and cash for PG Taurean Green, SG/SF Bobby Jones, and the second round pick Denver received in the Marcus Camby trade.