Did a competing team try to sabotage the Pacers' Ron Artest deal with the Kings for Peja Stojakovic?

The Pacers can't prove it, but they have a sense - and sources maintain they may be onto something - that one of the teams that was trying hardest to pry Artest from Indiana tried to convince the Kings that Artest wouldn't be happy in Sacramento. But the Kings went ahead with the deal after talking to Artest on Wednesday.

"I felt it, but I didn't know it," Pacers CEO Donnie Walsh said.

The Pacers didn't get the first player they wanted in the Artest deal. Golden State didn't want to part with Ike Diogu, even though he's a backup.

Although that would indicate that the Warriors really didn't want Artest - how could they make Diogu a deal-breaker? - the Warriors were serious enough about Artest that they had already assigned assistant coach Mario Elie the job of babysitting Artest in the event that he would join the team. They figured that Elie, another New Yorker, could help keep Artest under control. But since they wanted to part only with Mike Dunleavy, the Warriors never made themselves serious players.

The New York Post, meanwhile, reported that despite being unable to get anybody from St. John's or Indiana to recommend Artest sources say Golden State boss Chris Mullin was prepared to take the gamble. His only requirement was to meet with Artest one-on-one before meeting the Pacers' demand for Ike Diogu, Mike Dunleavy or Troy Murphy in a four-player package.

The Sacramento Kings have confirmed that Ron Artest will wear 93 for the club.

He wore 15 in Chicago and wore 23, 91 and 15 in Indiana.

Jermaine O'Neal is expected to miss at least eight weeks with a left groin tear, leaving the Indiana Pacers without their leading scorer and rebounder.

The news came Thursday, a day after the Pacers acquired sharpshooter Peja Stojakovic from the Sacramento Kings for the volatile Ron Artest.

The Pacers described the injury as "significant," but said it was doubtful he would need surgery.

O'Neal injured his groin in the fourth quarter of Indiana's loss at Cleveland on Tuesday.

After the game, O'Neal said, "We sure have had enough bad luck for a year. I'm really, really concerned. I heard it pop. Hopefully, I won't need surgery."

It's done. Final. Official. Approved.

Really.

After a 24-hour microcosm of their four-year experience with the on-again, off-again Ron Artest, the Pacers completed a deal sending the talented but controversial forward to Sacramento in exchange for Peja Stojakovic, one of the most prolific shooters in the game.

"Obviously, we're very happy about getting a player of his caliber," said Pacers President of Basketball Operations Larry Bird. "He's one of the best shooters in the league and we definitely feel he can come in and help us right away. We think he'll fit in with our team because he'll help spread the floor and give our big men better opportunities to score."

Stojakovic, 28, is averaging 16.5 points and 5.3 rebounds and shooting 39.7 percent from the 3-point line this season. Artest, 26, was averaging 19.4 points, 4.9 rebounds and 2.63 steals in 16 starts with the Pacers before making a public trade demand in early December, prompting the club to place him on the inactive list.

"We wish Ron the best at Sacramento," said Pacers CEO and President Donnie Walsh. "There's no doubt in our mind he'll have an immediate impact on their team. We'll miss him very much. We know this has been a long process for our fans, but we have a player we think our fans will enjoy watching."

The teams appeared to have a deal struck Tuesday but, just before a conference call with the NBA that would've finalized the trade, Artest's agent told the Kings his client did not want to play in Sacramento. That appeared to kill the trade, but Artest met with Walsh and Bird in their Conseco Fieldhouse offices Wednesday morning and clarified his intentions.

"I'm willing to play anywhere," Artest told Indianapolis television station WTHR. "I'm not going to be some hard guy to deal with and say I don't want to play there, you know? ? It was a good conversation. It was a little bit emotional, just to think what you've been through with Donnie Walsh, who's such a personable person. He treats everybody like family. It was a tough day, but we both left on good terms, which is pretty cool."

Artest then spoke with Kings ownership and management, allaying their concerns about the deal.

"Peja's just been a great, great player here," said Geoff Petrie, the Kings' President of Basketball Operations. "We've seen him develop from a rookie into a three-time All-Star. He's been a total professional. We certainly wish him the very best with Indiana. He'll always be a favorite member of the Kings organization.

"Ron Artest is going to bring a dimension to this team that we haven't had in a long time, maybe since I've been in Sacramento, in terms of his defensive abilities, his presence on the court, his versatility, his size and strength. Given where we are at this point of the season, we think he'll come in here and really make an impact."

The trade that almost wasn't is on the verge of happening again. The Kings and Pacers have both signed off on a deal that will send Ron Artest to Sacramento and Peja Stojakovic to Indiana, sources told ESPN's Jim Gray. The trade is now only pending league approval.

Artest met Wednesday with Indiana Pacers officials to discuss a possible trade to the Sacramento Kings after a deal for Stojakovic collapsed on Tuesday night.

"They said they were going to try to get something sorted out to get the trade done," Artest told the Indianapolis Star by phone as he drove away from the meeting at Conseco Fieldhouse. Artest told the Star it was a good meeting, but that there was "no trade right now."

However, ESPN's Gray and Stephen A. Smith reported Wednesday after the meeting that Artest has agreed to be traded. Gray reported that Kings owners Joe and Gavin Maloof talked to Artest and planned to talk to him again before finalizing any trade.

Ron Artest was summoned to a morning meeting by the Indiana Pacers, who wanted to hear whether he is standing in the way of a trade to the Sacramento Kings for Peja Stojakovic, ESPN.com Insider Chris Sheridan reported Tuesday night.

Artest met with Indianapolis officials Wednesday, then left Conseco Fieldhouse and drove away without making any public comment.

"It was a good meeting," Artest told the Indianapolis Star. "They said they were going to try to get something sorted out to get the trade done. There's no trade right now."

Artest also denied he wouldn't go to the Kings.

"I'll go anywhere," Artest told the Star. "I just want to get back on the basketball court and start playing again."

A source told Sheridan that the efforts to rekindle the deal were ongoing Wednesday and extended all the way to the ownership level on both teams.

With a proposed trade sending Artest to Sacramento apparently on hold, the Pacers scored just 28 points in the second half, lost Jermaine O'Neal to another injury and were drubbed 96-66 by the Cleveland Cavaliers on Tuesday night.

"We sure have had enough bad luck for a year," said O'Neal, who may have torn a groin muscle in the fourth quarter. "I'm really, really concerned. I heard it pop. Hopefully, I won't need surgery."

O'Neal, who said he has felt tightness in the groin for weeks, also hurt his right shoulder and was playing on a tender left ankle. He limped to the locker room with 9:30 remaining, but by then the Cavaliers were ahead by 20.

Ron Artest has been summoned to a Wednesday morning meeting by the Indiana Pacers, who want to hear from the player himself on whether he is standing in the way of a trade to the Sacramento Kings for Peja Stojakovic, ESPN.com learned Tuesday night.  

Artest and his agent were expected to meet Wednesday morning in Indianapolis with team executives Larry Bird and Donnie Walsh with the hopes the trade can be revived.

The Pacers and Kings were close to a deal Tuesday, and Stojakovic stayed at the team hotel in Philadelphia when it appeared the trade would be finalized. But a source with inner knowledge of the day's events said a call from Artest's agent, Mark Stevens, to the Kings gave them second thoughts about pulling the trigger, and the deal was temporarily shelved.

"The way I was treated today, I was disappointed," Stojakovic told ESPN.com in Philadelphia. "I feel kind of disrespected with the way I found out. Thank God they have TVs here. I understand being traded, but this is situation is weird. I had already planned my flight back to Sacramento, and now everything is reversed.

"I guess this is just a business, but the way I was told and the way I found out, I feel I deserved better from [Kings owners Joe and Gavin Maloof]. Anybody can get traded in the NBA, but the way I found out, it was disrespectful. I deserve better after seven and a half years."

Stojakovic was expected to travel to New York with the Kings for their game Wednesday night against the Knicks, but there remained a possibility the trade would be revived in the morning. Artest told The Indianapolis Star there was a possibility something still could happen.

"There's no deal," Artest told the newspaper by telephone. "It's not that I don't want to play there ... I'm letting my agent handle things. He's taken over things." Artest told the Star he is not against a trade but would like to be involved in negotiations.

"I just want to meet with team officials of whichever team I'm headed to," he said in a story posted on the newspaper's Web site. "I want to play, but I'm following the rules I have to follow. If I have to sit out, I sit out the season."

The deal would have ended a lengthy standoff between the Pacers and Artest, who was banished from the team in December after requesting a trade and was suspended most of last season for his role in one of the worst brawls in U.S. sports history.

Before the deal apparently broke down, Kings players were already talking about the trade as if it was a done deal.

"Peja will be missed," Kings forward Corliss Williamson said. "He's been in Sacramento for a lot of years, but life goes on in the NBA.

"We'll welcome Ron Artest with open arms and hope he'll be able to help us. You always hear about the situations he's been in and all the hype. Maybe this is the change he needs, to come into our system and flourish."

Ron Artest;  Pacer? King?  Pacer?  King?

Reports are now coming out that Ron Artest could still approve a deal that would send him to the Sacramento Kings, which was first reported Tuesday afternoon.

Mark Stevens, Artest's agent, reportedly told the Kings his client "had no desire" to play for Sacramento, that he would report but "not be happy."