Ron Artest on Tour With Fat Joe

It’s been a busy summer for rapper Ron Artest . He’s already done shows in Phoenix, Salt Lake City, El Paso, Miami, Detroit, Memphis and Albuquerque opening up for the likes of Young Jeezy and Mike Jones. Now the Sacramento King is headed overseas with Fat Joe. In a recent interview with the Sacramento Bee, Artest said that he enjoys the rap life, but it ain’t easy.

“It's crazy. It's tiring. It's like you go to one city, do a job, then drive like 10 hours. It's kind of like the NBA, but the music life is so much crazier, “ Artest said. “The road is just crazy. And when we go overseas, we're going to fly, obviously, but we're going to drive to every country. I didn't know in Europe that all the countries connect, so we're driving to every country we're going to. That should be pretty cool.”

Artest said his debut album is set to drop on September 26 on his TruWarier Records imprint. Artest and Joe will leave this weekend for gigs in Portugal, France, Germany, Switzerland, Netherlands, Denmark and Norway. Although it hasn’t been updated in awhile, you can check out truwarier.com for more info on Artest’s lil rap career.

KG does Asia

For the last week, Kevin Garnett has been rolling through Beijing, Shanghai, New Delhi and Taipei with Adidas to promote his limited edition shoes as well as the NBA. He kept fans up to date with his travels, his first time to Asia, with a blog over at the NBA website.

From the looks of it, it sounds like KG had a good time over there.

His hotel stay in Shanghai:

"Our hotel was crazy! I have stayed at a lot of hotels and this hotel is by far the best I have ever stayed in. The room was so 2010."

Monkeys in New Delhi: "As we left the store and drove to the gym we saw wild monkeys along the streets. Over here monkeys are like squirrels, it is funny to tell you the truth."

And poverty in India:

"Let me give it to you raw; India is a huge country filled with tons of poverty, lots of poverty, but many beautiful people. As we drove the dirt roads and through some of the neighborhoods, I couldn't forget how fortunate and blessed I am."

Maybe now KG can get his own show on the Travel Channel!

Boris Diaw Breaks Down His Game… Video Game

Not too long ago Boris Diaw was at the EA Sports studio doing the motion capture thing and posing for pictures for possible NBA Live 07 covers in France, along with Tony Parker (Tracy McGrady will be the coverboy for USA versions of the game). The folks at IGN.com caught up with Diaw at the motion capture session to find out he uses video games to help his on-court game.

“I learned a lot about the NBA through playing videogames like Live,” Diaw said. “When you play as a team, you can put in combinations of players you never see on TV and you never know who is going to be your favorite player. You get to know a lot of players you might not know otherwise. I've been playing games for a long time. Lakers vs. Celtics was the first basketball game I remember playing. Growing up, the Lakers were my favorite team. I wanted to be like Magic, and then all of a sudden using the videogames, I could play as him and control him. It was great.”

The game drops this fall and look for Diaw to be dunking from the 3-point line as he tries win most improved player back-to-back.

Earl Boykins Gets Down With KeyBank

You rarely hear about NBA players who start on the bench getting big endorsement deals, but apparently the folks in Ohio really like Earl Boykins . Cleveland-based KeyBank signed a deal with the Denver Nuggets point guard to hawk the brand in Colorado, where there is also a branch.

“Since he signed his first pro contract, Earl has been a part of the KeyBank family,” said Michael Hobbs, president of KeyBank in Colorado in a statement. “We’re looking forward to the upcoming NBA season and working with Earl in our community.”

Boykins attended Central Catholic High School in Cleveland before making a name for himself at Eastern Michigan University.

Walker, Hardaway Invite You to Chicagoland

Antoine Walker and Tim Hardaway are once again hosting their Chicagoland All-Star Weekend Classic to raise funds for the Support Group, an organization designed to help kids get off the streets, get jobs, get tutoring and do something productive with their free time.

The weekend kicks off on Friday night with a comedy show featuring Lavell Crawford, Damon Williams, Marcus Combs and Alex Thomas. On Saturday, the All-Star game will take place at the United Center and feature folks like Dwyane Wade, Juwan Howard and Corey Maggette playing a pick-up game. On Sunday, the celebs will come together again and play a game of softball.

For more information or tickets check out The Support Group