Robbie old news as Peace threatens to break out in LA

IF the US isn’t feeling the tremors of the Robbie Keane deal as much as Crumlin and north London, then it’s because American sports fans have enough of their own want-away stars to contend with as it is.

The NBA lockout has forced basketball’s biggest stars to consider a cultural exchange in the top European leagues and China, the hoops equivalent of the Irish captain abandoning the Premier League — if not being abandoned by the league — in favour of regular playing time in an interesting city for decent pay.

The people of Los Angeles are less interested in the former Liverpool and Spurs player riding in on a fanfare of confusion than they are bemused by the LA Laker hollering from the rooftops about his dream move to a quaint college town in the north of England.

One of the NBA’s more eccentric individuals, Ron Artest, is a player who is as famous for brawls, half-time swigs of cognac and an unprecedented decision to attend therapy sessions as he is for being an accomplished defensive component of the 2010 title-winning Lakers.

So when he expressed a strong interest in moving to the Cheshire Jets of the British Basketball League, it just added to his growing file of maverick activity.

The timing couldn’t have been better either. He’s also in the process of legally changing his name to Metta World Peace.

If Mr World Peace flies into Chester this week as planned and manages to work out a way of finalising an incredible deal (which owner Peter Hawkins described as offering the millionaire a “stake in the club and all the love in the world”), he will join Cork city native Colin O’Reilly.

When I called him last week, I’d caught O’Reilly on a good day. He’d been told by his coach at the Jets that his new contract for the coming season was a done deal. Now all that needed to be done was to convince the 31-year-old New York baller to join him there.

Artest and O’Reilly, together at last.

Artest has cleaned up his act a lot since his roaring twenties, during which he wreaked havoc at the Chicago Bulls and the Indiana Pacers. The old world charm of Chester will do little to encourage a return to those hedonistic days.

“The town is small enough, it’s not a hectic city or anything like that,” O’Reilly, 27, tells me. “It’s nice and laid-back, you get to concentrate on basketball. It’s a university town which still has a lot of old Roman buildings.

“With all the students around there’s something going on all the time if you do need to let the hair down but mainly it’s just an old style English town.”

The club, under the down-to-earth stewardship of Hawkins, is very much rooted in the community, where it tries to create a feel-good factor by visiting 120 schools a year.

“The club isn’t out there to make money, it’s just for the purposes of having something for the Chester area so that they can keep basketball going in the region. It has one of the top youth structures in the country as well.”

This will be the former UCC Demons and Neptune player’s third year at the English club and, with or without Artest, he is keen to improve on last season’s fourth-placed finish. But if it does come to pass, how does he envision the role of the superstar newcomer? “The standard he’s at, he can fit in wherever he wants to fit in,” O’Reilly answers laughing. “He’ll be on the floor most of the time and our job will be to get the ball to him as much as possible. And keep him happy for as long as he wants.

“I’m not in regular enough contact (he was in Cork when I called him, coaching at a basketball camp) but the signs are positive. If it comes off, it will be amazing.

“From our club’s point of view, we’ve been in the news, national papers, national TV in July and August which is unheard of for the BBL. That can only be a positive thing for the club and the league too.

“So that’s a success even if he doesn’t sign. He’s not going to turn the league around and have it challenge the rest of Europe but he’ll create a buzz about it and maybe bring in a few more sponsors.

“He would definitely bring crowds as well and when they come, they’ll definitely enjoy the games because basketball is an enjoyable sport to watch.

“Some of the tabloid stuff is probably blown out of proportion.

“I can’t see an athlete who plays 82 games a year not being a full-time professional and looking after himself in every way possible.”

So will he call him Ron or Metta or Peace? “Whatever he wants.”

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