Feuds of the Week

Feuds of the Week is a collection of the week's most pressing matchups. Since it's Fourth of the July time, here are this week's biggest and brightest (legal) fireworks.

Trevor Ariza vs. Ron Artest

In what turned out to be basically a swap of the players, the Lakers will sign Artest (below his market rate) and the Rockets will sign Ariza (for around what he was offered by the Lakers in the first place) when free agents can officially ink deals next week.

Thanks to Ariza (and his agent) looking elsewhere after receiving what they thought was a lowball Laker offer, Artest immediately makes the best team in the NBA tougher, which has been the biggest knock against L.A. the past couple of years. Meanwhile, Ariza will be counted on to be more of a contributor than he's ever had to be during his career, but now on a secretly rebuilding Rockets team.

The Verdict: It's hard to fault Ariza for trying to get a better deal, especially when the Artest contract seemed to come out of nowhere. Really, though, Artest and the Lakers come out victorious here. In addition, the potential storylines are endless, from what designs Artest will shave into his head, to how quickly Artest "accidentally" knocks down a TMZ camera guy next to a valet in Santa Monica. Nothing could possibly go wrong here.

Manny Ramirez vs. The Rest of the Season

Ramirez returns Friday against San Diego after serving his 50 game suspension for testing positive for PEDs. The biggest question is how Manny responds to both so much time off and the extra scrutiny by media and fans.

Considering how much hell Barry Bonds caught in Dodger Stadium a few years ago, Giants fans should be particularly brutal during L.A.'s remaining six games in whatever it is that stadium is called these days. Lucky for Manny, though, it's still San Francisco, so he should probably just get ready for sophisticated puns shouted between swigs of minty green tea.

The Verdict: It seems unlikely that his second half will mirror last year's otherworldly performance, but even clean, it's not unreasonable to think that Manny will be on a mission to prove that he can still crush the ball, even without the aid of the best female fertility masking agents money can buy.

Tennis Fans vs. NBC Sports