Yes, according to the latest edition of the Sporting News, he drank at halftime of some games during his 1999-2002 stint with the Bulls:

“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.”

Two things here:

1) Does this surprise anybody? This is Ron Artest here. His entire NBA persona has been built around wild, outlandish stuff. He’s always been a wild child, a bit crazy.That’s what makes Ron Ron. If anything, this anecdote is just another piece that fits perfectly into the Ron Artest puzzle.

2) Shoals brings up a valid point in all of this. We clown Ron all the time, but when guys admit to serious mental health issues like Delonte West and Michael Beasley did this summer, we treated them with kid gloves.

Sorry, people, but you can’t rock the double standard here. If West’s a perpetual patient, and Beasley close enough to one that we’ve changed our tone about him, then now Ron Ron is, too.

But here’s what I’m wondering: All those years we informally called Artest “crazy,” what exactly did we mean? It would be one thing if all he’d done was shave stuff into his head and give the best interviews this side of KG. But fans and media alike blasted Artest for unpredictability, violence, and a certain disconnect from reality. I guess that made him an easy target, and probably not someone you wanted on your team. Still, I fail to see why an athlete deserves sympathy if he admits he has a problem, but if he refuses to, we can clown him for having one.

Or who knows, maybe Artest will never get that free pass. It’s too late for him. Good thing he feels he’s finally gotten himself together, since at this point, his only recourse might be to prove to the public that he’s not “insane” anymore. He owes us that for being such an unstable athlete, doesn’t he?

It probably is too late for Artest. When this public perception has been running for a decade now, and he’s showing up pants-less on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” last week, and he doesn’t appear to be checking into a mental health facility anytime soon, people are going to think of Ron how they’ve always thought of Ron.

Whether that’s right or not, though, is certainly up for debate.