Filed under: Basketball, News/ Sports, Sports, News
On Tuesday, LA Lakers forward Ron Artest received the J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award from the Professional Writer's Basketball Association. Talk about being on a roll.
Last August, he served as a guest editor for ESPN, and a few months later in October, Las Vegas celebrated "Ron Artest Day," giving him the key to the city and $10,000 due to his dedication to raising mental health awareness. Artest later donated the money to his charity, XCel University.
And if that wasn't enough, Artest raffled off his NBA championship ring in December and raised $650,000 for mental health charities.
But Artest wasn't always a media darling.
In 2004, after Artest, who at the time was an Indiana Pacer, got involved in a fight with another player, a Diet Coke was thrown at him from the stands. Artest, along with other players, began fighting with fans, resulting in nine players being suspended and $10 million being lost in salary.
Even though it was a dark time for Artest, the athlete was able to rebound from the incident by getting a therapist and speaking out about his life's struggles and the importance of being mentally healthy.
And he hasn't looked back.
With hope, more celebrities will take some pointers (pun intended) from Artest and spend more time giving back.
Watch Artest talk about his award here:
View more videos at: http://nbcnewyork.com.
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Source: http://www.bvonsports.com/2011/04/27/ron-artest-receives-nbas-citizenship-award/
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