RON-RON ENJOYING HIS NEW ENVIRONMENT: ARTEST WEARS THE CROWN FOR KINGS.

Byline: VINCENT BONSIGNORE NBA 

Ron Artest is laying on his back inside the Sacramento Kings' locker room Thursday at Staples Center. Above him, a group of reporters form a circle, each armed with a tape recorder and notebook.

For Artest, the view has never been better.

``I love being under the microscope,'' Artest said, grinning.

So much for Artest blending in quietly with his new team.

On and off the floor.

Two weeks after the Kings helped end one of the most public, drawn out professional sports divorces by shipping Peja Stojakovic to Indiana for Artest, their new forward has emphatically stamped his likeness on a team devoid of an image the last year-and-a-half.

The Kings are 8-6 since trading for Artest - 6-0 at home - and have drawn within three games of the Lakers for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference. A month ago, this was a team floundering about, still ambivalent about its long-range direction after trading or not re-signing Chris Webber, Doug Christie, Bobby Jackson and Vlade Divac.

Now Sacramento is relevant again, and Artest is the reason.

``We were a team without a personality,'' is how Kings coach Rick Adelman described the pre-Artest days. ``With Ron, we have one.''

Of course, with Artest any team accepts the fact the good personality might be overtaken at anytime by the five or six other personalities buzzing around inside his head. That's why it took Indiana nearly three months to finally find a home for its wayward star after he incredulously demanded a trade because he no longer liked playing for Rick Carlisle.

The ultimatum - which cost Artest more than two months paid leave of absence - was the final straw for the Pacers, who deserved better after sticking by him through his 73-game suspension for his role in last year's ugly player-fan brawl in Detroit.

Not to mention all the other knucklehead acts he's pulled over the years. In the past two seasons alone, Artest has missed more that 100 games through league and team imposed suspensions.

But if sports keeps teaching the same lesson over and over, it's that someone's always waiting with open arms no matter how badly things turned out with your last team.

So, Kings owners Gavin and Joe Maloof, gamblers at heart and desperate to alter the fate of their franchise, rolled the dice.

Never mind they were betting on one of the most notorious, volatile players in recent history.

``We were a team that was running in sand this year,'' Adelman said. ``Things that we thought would happen didn't happen. We weren't playing well as a team. We weren't meshing. And it gets to a point where you start wondering where you're gonna get it, and how are you going to turn it around.''

Hello, Artest. Goodbye, Peja.

Not that it took the Kings long to learn dealing with Artest wasn't the same as dealing with the ultimate good guy they were shipping away. Artest initially balked at moving West to Sacramento, and for two days the deal was off the table.

``Everything happened so fast and I really hadn't head anything from the Kings. I didn't speak to anybody so I really didn't know if they actually wanted me because sometimes teams trade for you but they don't want you,'' Artest said. ``I really didn't know any of those things.''

Artest says now he just wanted confirmation the Maloofs were committed to him.

``As soon as they told me they really wanted me, I was happy to come,'' he said.

In reality, he knew he had no other choice. It was either accept the trade or risk sitting out the rest of the season. Still, it took a phone conversation with the Maloofs to finally convince Artest to sign off on the trade.

For Artest, the Kings are his third team in six seasons. He says things will be different this time, and concedes the messy divorce from the Pacers actually taught him a few things.

``The longer you're in the league, the more you learn about how it works,'' Artest said. ``You learn about certain things you can do and certain things you can't do.''

For starters, don't turn your back on a franchise that went to the wall for you every single time you flew into one of your fits.

Even Artest seemed to realize this soon after going public with his trade demand, saying it was all a misunderstanding and that he wanted to return.

It was too late, of course. The Pacers had already washed their hands of him.

``That was something different, when you got your team pretty much not wanting you to play,'' Artest said. ``It was a weird feeling. But it was just something new. Another obstacle.''

Now he's Sacramento's problem. Adelman, knowing full well the fine line Artest walks is thin enough to send him and everyone around him free falling, laid out Artest's options in a face-to-face meeting soon after the trade.

``It told him this could go one or two ways: It can go the way everybody keeps talking about his past, or it could go with him being considered the last piece to our transition,'' Adelman said. ``I told him he had a chance to be a huge factor for our team.''

So far, so good.

Artest's teammates have enthusiastically embraced him so far. They know they were going nowhere fast without him, and that his unique blend of offense and rugged defense gives them a puncher's chance of reaching the postseason.

In turn, Artest says he enjoys playing with Mike Bibby and Brad Miller and that he's taken to Sacramento so well he'll soon be moving into a new home there.

``It's going great, it really is,'' Artest said. ``I'm very happy.''

The Kings can only hope he stays that way.

--Odds and ends: A day after the Knicks traded for Orlando guard Steve Francis, Stephon Marbury pleaded with Larry Brown to ditch his deliberate offense in favor of a more up-tempo game.

``I want to go up and down every single time I touch the ball,'' Marbury said. ``With this team, I don't think we should run any set plays. I think we should be pushing the ball every chance we get. We've got so many athletic players on this team, so many guys who can make plays. I think we should play run and gun.''

Brown said if the Knicks want to run, they better start playing some better defense and start taking care of the ball.

``The only way you can run is if you get stops,'' Brown said. ``We lead the league in fouls. That stops you from running. We lead the league in turnovers. That makes other teams run. We haven't been the best defensive rebounding team. That keeps you from running.''

Ball's in your court, Stephon.

CAPTION(S):

photo, 3 boxes

Photo:

no caption (Rick Adelman)

Box:

(1) FIVE QUESTIONS WITH ... RICK ADELMAN

- Vincent Bonsignore

(2) OFF THE GLASS

(3) Daily News/CBS 2/KCAL 9 SPORTS CENTRAL POWER RANKINGS

- Ross Siler