Stephen Jackson: Metta Sandiford-Artest could’ve won multiple DPOYs and MVPs ‘if he was in his right mind’

Years ago, former NBA players Stephen Jackson and Metta Sandiford-Artest were teammates on the Indiana Pacers.

That gave Jackson a chance to get an up-close look at Sandiford-Artest, who seemingly left quite an impression on him.

Jackson shared recently that he thinks Sandiford-Artest could have won Defensive Player of the Year (DPOY) and MVP honors multiple times “if he was in his right mind,” but added “you never knew” which version of Sandiford-Artest was going to show up.

“And Ron Artest? Man, if he was in his right mind, he could’ve won Defensive Player of the Year and MVP multiple times,” Jackson said of Sandiford-Artest, who has changed his name a few times over the years. “No one could stop him. No threes, no guards in the league could guard Ron. That’s heavy talk, I know, but Ron — without a cloud over him, without any distractions — was unstoppable. At 6’7”, 260 pounds, with the handle he had? He was unbelievable. Ron could lock anybody up and take pride in it. But you never knew which Ron was going to show up.”

Even as it was, Sandiford-Artest was able to win one Defensive Player of the Year award and assemble a solid NBA resume. He never won an MVP award, but he did get one NBA title, one All-Star nod, one All-NBA selection and numerous defensive accolades.

It’s fascinating that Jackson thinks Sandiford-Artest could have accomplished even more. The two players were teammates for parts of two seasons.

Their first season together was the 2004-05 campaign. As some may remember, that season featured one of the most infamous situations in NBA history: the “Malice at the Palace.” Because of that notorious brawl, Sandiford-Artest missed virtually the entire season with a suspension. All seven of his appearances in that campaign came before he was issued a season-ending suspension.

Jackson and Sandiford-Artest were still teammates on the Pacers when the following season started, but that didn’t last. Sandiford-Artest requested a trade after appearing in just 16 games in the 2005-06 campaign and eventually got his wish.

Clearly, Jackson’s time playing alongside Sandiford-Artest came with some turbulence, but Jackson evidently saw enough to feel like Sandiford-Artest was a special talent.

From the start of the 2002-03 season through the end of the 2008-09 season, Sandiford-Artest averaged 18.0 points, 5.5 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 2.1 steals per game while frequently receiving DPOY votes and winning the race once.

Those were some of the best years of his career, and if he was ever going to win an MVP award, it likely would have happened during that stretch. But ultimately, he never had a season where he was truly in contention for the award, and he would’ve needed to do more at some point during his career in order to truly challenge for the honor.