Ron Artest impersonated Luis Scola on Houston radio

The Lakers are in the midst of a four-game losing streak, which as we all know means that they have to "hunker down" and "mean business" if they want to get back on the right track. In short, they need to get serious, because only serious men can win in sports. Just ask Derek Anderson.

Ron Artest has apparently not received this memo. After Wedneday night's 109-99 loss to the Rockets, Ron-Ron decided to have some fun with his old radio friends in Houston. So he called into the unofficial Rockets postgame show on 1560 The Game and pretended to be Luis Scola.

Earlier Thursday, I exchanged emails with Raheel Ramzanali, co-host of The Nuno and Raheel Show and one of the two voices you hear (including Wednesday night's co-host, Danny Vara) with "Scola" in the recording linked above. As Raheel tells it, he initially had no idea it was Artest:

We had no idea it was Artest at first! Our reporter in the locker room told us that the Lakers had cleared out so I didnt even think it was Artest.  We usually get Scola on the post-game show, so I just thought it was him, but I knew something was up after the first answer.  We ran with it and just assumed our reporter put Scola up to something and just let it go.  We found out it was Artest about three minutes later when our reporter called back in and told us that it was Artest.  He wanted a copy of it because the impression was so good.

Our callers thought it was Scola just messing around but when we told everyone it was Artest it was so evident that we have no ears for telling who is who.  I'm blamming the crappy cell towers for the tomfoolery!

Obviously this is a perfectly normal thing for Artest to do. Losses can be tough, and the best way to take that sting away is to call in to the opposing team's unofficial postgame show and pretend to be that team's star player. Bonus points if you do so by using your normal voice with a slight Latin accent.

I'm not really sure anything Ron-Ron says here is a funny joke -- highlights include saying he's (i.e. Scola's) "the best player in the world" and that he will celebrate the win by "eating Spanish food" (Scola is Argentinean) -- but the entire concept is so ridiculous that this ruse might solidify him as the funniest player in the NBA. Who else would even think of doing something like this?

I almost want the Lakers to keep losing games so that Artest can impersonate more players around the league. The Lakers host the Kings on Friday, and I hear Ron does a mean Omri Casspi impression. Get ready for plenty of references to latkes and dreidels. Happy Chanukah, boys and girls!

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