From the article:

Lakers spokesman John Black declined to comment on Artest’s assertion, but another person with knowledge of the situation corroborated Artest’s account that he will sign with L.A. pending the financial parameters being finalized.

It’s too soon for the Lakers to give up on re signing Trevor Ariza. Also, for as much as I (Douglas Reinhardt) like Ron Artest, I don’t believe he can fit into the Lakers system.

And I may have stated earlier that we had posted our final story about Ariza, but I just have one last thought about Ariza: your stomach is bigger than your mouth. Signing for big money in a place like Houston or Toronto or even Portland puts more pressure on him; he has to deliever and perhaps become the second scoring option on a team where as with the Lakers, Ariza is the fourth scoring option and just needs to play defense and keep on Kobe’s good side.