Michael Ventre

NBA fans, circle Feb. 23 on your calendars. Make sure your cable or satellite service is working perfectly, and have a backup if it isn’t. Let the machine pick up any calls, and if your significant other wants to go out, fake a cold.

You have to keep that night open, because it happens to be the night when the world will find out if one man can stop Kobe Bryant, and if Ron Artest is that man.

Artest has either been sedated, or physically restrained a la Hannibal Lecter, or – and admittedly, this is a longshot possibility – he came to his senses, because he finally gave his approval to a trade that will send the NBA’s Tasmanian Devil from Indiana to Sacramento in exchange for “disrespected” sharpshooter Peja Stojakovic.

After all the histrionics, we can now examine this transaction in a basketball context rather than a mental health one. And there are many aspects to this deal, including:

Will an infusion of scoring and tenacity help lift the Kings from their current doldrums that have produced a 17-23 record? Will a change of scenery finally enable Peja to hit a big shot at the end of a big game? Being that Sacramento is the capital of California, will the Kings be able to avail themselves of psychiatrists on the state payroll as well as private ones?

Those questions and many more will be debated rigorously by hardwood analysts from now until the next time Artest is traded, which could be any minute now.

But the most compelling angle to this development is having Artest in the Pacific Division, where he will be able to man up against Mr. 81 four times a year. Feb. 23 happens to be the next time the Lakers and Kings meet, at Staples Center, but they also tangle two more times after that, on March 14 in Sacramento and March 22 in L.A.

Artest a King Artest to make Kings home debut Tuesday Ventre: Artest just crazy enough to slow Kobe Cook: Kings, be careful what you wish for Litke: Maloofs take long odds on Atrest   Video: Artest reacts to trade Vote: How will Kings fare with Artest?

After the recent string of Kobe fusillades — he doesn’t score 81 every night; occasionally he throws up a 62 or a 51, just to keep everybody honest — doubts have increased over whether any one defender can put the brakes on him. But really, we are not living in the age of defensive specialists. Kids nowadays grow up watching ESPN and emulating the guys who make their bones from beyond the three-point stripe, or by way of flying dunks. The number of NBA players who epoxy themselves to an opponent, determined to deny him the ball and the bucket, has dwindled enough to qualify as an endangered species.

Yet Artest is a throwback. He is just nutty enough to treat Kobe Bryant like any other player. That in itself won’t get the job done. But Artest has more. He’s big, strong, quick and cunning. He also probably isn’t afraid of being embarrassed, since he’s experienced a lot of embarrassment in his career and is numb to it.

In fact, Artest might be the only player left on earth who can stop Kobe, or contain him, or limit his effectiveness, or at least keep him under 50. The Trail Blazers’ Ruben Patterson used to call himself a Kobe stopper. The last I heard, Ruben was still being treated at the burn ward of Good Samaritan Hospital. There are others around the league who can make Kobe sweat, but nobody who can make him bleed.

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