Ron Artest, the 30-year-old, first-year starter with the Los Angeles Lakers, may yet prove to be a crucial piece of an improved championship puzzle. 
 
 But those who are counting on one of the league's most explosive personalities to avoid controversy with his fifth NBA team may want to temper their expectations. 
 
 In a lengthy interview for the December 7 issue of Sporting News magazine, Artest—best known as the central figure in the infamous Malice at the Palace in 2004—bared all, including a startling admission that he drank alcohol during games as a member of the Chicago Bulls, for whom he played from 1999-2002. 
 
 "I used to drink Hennessy … at halftime," Artest says in the interview, which hits newsstands this week. "I (kept it) in my locker. I'd just walk to the liquor store (near the stadium) and get it." 
 
 Artest speaks openly in the interview on many other sensitive topics. 
 
 Ron Artest admitted that he was a 'head case' when he broke into the NBA with the Bulls. 
 
 On why things fell apart for him in Chicago and Indiana: "It was all my fault. The first team, in Chicago, I was a head case. I worked really hard but still had this ghetto thing in me that I could not get out. … I could've stayed at Indiana my whole career, but I said I wanted to be traded. I was getting more stable, but I was still unstable and I was a bad teammate. They had to get rid of me." 
 
 On the 2004 brawl in Detroit for which Artest was suspended 73 games and lost $7 million in salary: "It wasn't my fault. … I don't see anything I could have done different. The only thing I could have done was have God pause time so I could have said, 'Oh, look, you're about to run in some stands, so stop.'" 
 
 On the Rockets' loss to the Lakers in the 2009 Western Conference semifinals: "(Referee) Joey Crawford basically said, 'Who cares about the Houston Rockets? Kobe Bryant is on the floor.'" 
 
 On comparisons with Trevor Ariza, the player he replaced at small forward in the Lakers' starting lineup: "I really don't understand why people compare me to him, or try. With what I've done in this league already, I mean, seriously? … I think it's the hype behind (a championship)." 
 
 On accepting a role in Bryant's supporting cast: "It's weird because people don't think about the whole basketball game. There's offense: Kobe averages 30 and is a great offensive player. Then you have defense. So on defense, now I have my supporting cast. … I'm one of the best defenders to ever play basketball, so I'm still the first option on defense." 
 
 On his feelings toward Ben Wallace, the Pistons center whose altercation with Artest touched off the melee in Detroit: "I see Ben, I'm on my guard now. I'm always in the mood to fight him. … I'll get suspended 10 games, 15 games (because) I'll just fight him right there. It won't go into the stands." 
 
 Artest also reveals his plans to become a professional boxer: "I started training two years ago," he says. "In four years, I'm going to try to have my first fight." 
 
 But the comments that may follow him most closely in the coming weeks are about drinking alcohol during games early in his career, which Artest says happened in part because the Bulls lost so often. 
 
 Previously, Artest hid any use of alcohol and marijuana well, according to his former coach at St. John's, Fran Fraschilla. 
 
 "It's a surprise because every day at practice, he came out in a mood to play. He came out in a basketball rage," said Fraschilla, now an analyst for ESPN. "He was fully committed; he wanted to let our upperclassmen know that he was the alpha male. 
 
 "It never came up that he had any sort of a problem with alcohol. This is the first I've heard of it." 
 
 Steve Greenberg is a writer for Sporting News. E-mail him at sgreenberg@sportingnews.com. 
 
 The full version of this story appeared in the Dec. 7 edition of Sporting News magazine. If you are not receiving the magazine, subscribe today, or pick up a copy, available at most Barnes & Noble, Borders and Hudson Retail outlets. ||||| Once upon a time, Edwards' staff thought white wine and sissy sodas were their biggest problems. In anticipation of Andrew Young's 20/20 interview tonight, Gawker asks an Edwards staffer to evaluate the latest rumors—and lob some new ones. 
 
 "I don't think there's really any sympathy for him," says our anonymous staffer, who worked on Edwards' 2004 and 2008 campaigns and says Edwards' old staff is universally "disgusted" with their former boss. 
 
 Back before they realized John was knocking up videographers while his wife lay dying, Edwards' staff worried that his beverage choices were too girly: 
 
 He had very weird soda preferences. For the longest time it was all Sprite Zero. And then at one point the word came down that he would no longer drink Sprite Zero. He would only drink Diet Orange Sunkist. And Diet Orange Sunkist can be very difficult to find on short notice. It had to be in cans. It could not be in bottles. We'd pick him up at the airport you'd have to have a cooler of that and white wine on ice. 
 
 His alcohol of choice was simultaneously elitist and tasteless... 
 
 He only drank white wine. Despite all that "man of the people" beer drinking, he preferred Sauvignon Blanc. It could be a three-dollar or a fifty-dollar bottle of wine and he would not have a clue. I don't really think he would've known the difference if you'd given him chardonnay. ... He's your classic—I hate to use this term—but he's so nouveau riche. He's totally a guy with no taste who suddenly came into a lot of money. 
 
 ...and illegal: "If you were driving, plastic cups were a good idea because he'd want to have a drink while you were driving him around." An open container in a moving vehicle? "Yes." Did this make you nervous, anonymous staffer? "Yes. Especially when he'd ask you to drive faster." 
 
 The staffer says he's kept up with the leaks and recent excerpt from assistant-turned-memoirist (and early sex tape whistleblower) Andrew Young's forthcoming book, and they "seem pretty consistent" with his experience. But he admits that Young is "a little disconnected from reality." (A passage describing Young's fear of Grisham-style retribution drew particular disbelief.) Our staffer says Edwards' lies fooled most everyone: 
 
 We all bought the spin. Until the pregnancy stuff surfaced, it wasn't that crazy a story, just a report that he had an affair with a videographer. But when the other layers came out—the child, and the timing with Elizabeth's cancer—it became more monstrous. 
 
 He adds that the National Enquirer's trashy reputation "aided our desire not to believe." He realized the Enquirer was right in January of 2008, when a friend told him Andrew Young had a vasectomy and thus could not—as Young and Edwards claimed—be Rielle's baby daddy. The staffer is quick to note that not everyone on staff knew this. (Like, say, Edwards' spokespersons, whom he claims were unaware they were passing on lies.) 
 
 The staffer suspected Dallas donor Fred Baron of paying to support Rielle. (Baron confirmed this shortly before his death in 2008) He finds plausible Young's claim that Listerine heiress and Jackie Onassis bosom buddy Bunny Mellon's "Bunny money" also played a role: 
 
 Everybody knew about the Bunny money, though not that it was part of that [the sex scandal]. Everybody knew 'Bunny money' as this rich heiress who thought [Edwards] was the reincarnation of Robert Kennedy. You sort of pieced it together by working backwards: You hear the story about Rielle living in a house, and you know she doesn't have an income. You know that Fred [Baron] has a billion dollars, and you know Fred would do anything for John. 
 
 Asked about Edwards' recent camera-friendly trip to Haiti, the staffer comes as close to rolling his eyes as one can by telephone: 
 
 I think there is less than zero chance of him ever having a public career again. And I am absolutely positive that he will try. He's addicted to it. He needs attention. ... He was the kind of guy who'd been told all his life he was the golden child. I think that's what Rielle tapped into. She told him he was the golden child, and I think he liked to believe that. 
 
 The staffer isn't in touch with John anymore, but if he were to offer advice?
– Ron Artest drank cognac during games in his first few NBA seasons with the Chicago Bulls, the volatile forward tells the Sporting News. “I used to drink Hennessy … at halftime,” Artest, now 30 and with the Los Angeles Lakers, says. “I (kept it) in my locker. I’d just walk to the liquor store (near the stadium) and get it.” More nuggets from the conversation: On the 2004 brawl in Detroit, the so-called “Malice at the Palace”: “It wasn't my fault. … I don’t see anything I could have done different. The only thing I could have done was have God pause time so I could have said, ‘Oh, look, you’re about to run in some stands, so stop.’” On early stints in Chicago and Indiana: “In Chicago, I was a head case. I worked really hard but still had this ghetto thing in me that I could not get out. … I could’ve stayed at Indiana my whole career, but I said I wanted to be traded. I was getting more stable, but I was still unstable and I was a bad teammate. They had to get rid of me.”