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Ron Artest Has Lots of Extra Jewelry

Diamonds
Diamonds

*Editors Note:  Want to commend Ron-Ron on this wonderful act of charity?  Want to ask him how he'll fit in the triangle?  Want to ask him what he ate for lunch?  Give him a call.  For realz, do it.  Thanks NBA Offseason, via BDL.

Don't let it be said that Ron Artest never did anything for you. I suppose I should mention, that sentence only applies if you're Zheng Fengyu of Hubei province.

Take it away, most glorious state media organ China View!

Los Angeles Lakers star Ron Artest has donated his diamond watch to a high school student in Wuhan Wednesday to support his education.

Zheng Fengyu, 15, is the captain of Wuhan NO.1 middle school's basketball team.

Ron played basketball with Zheng Wednesday afternoon, and gave the boy later his watch, which is worth 45,000 U.S. dollars (about 300,000 yuan), according to a report by local media.

"He is great. Never let me shoot easily," Artest said. "Hope this can help realize his basketball dream."

Forty-five grand isn't that much to an illustrious blogger like me - frankly, I'm not sure I'd bother cashing a check that small - but sources in the upper middle class tell me that to many people it's a lot of money. And thanks to Chinese government exchange-rate manipulation, it converts into an assload of yuan. Forget basketball... young Mr. Zheng can now realize his dream of opening a human-trafficking operation.

Anyhow, I'm tired of celebrities and their public displays of charity. I do plenty for the world's downtrodden, but do you see me preening for the cameras? Like yesterday, when there were a couple bites of my Subway BMT that I couldn't finish. Did I throw it away? Of course not - I handed it off to a homeless guy so he could enjoy a once-in-a-lifetime treat.

OK, so I didn't actually hand it to him... he was asleep, so I dropped it on the ground kind of where he was lying. And then I walked away briskly before he could wake up and talk to me. Woo-hoo, I'm a hero!

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