Rockets guard Ron Artest said Wednesday that he considered Portland’s Brandon Roy the finest player he has faced.

Asked Thursday what makes Roy better than Kobe Bryant, LeBron James or Dwyane Wade, Artest went a different direction.

“I don’t know; that was yesterday,” Artest said. “This is a new day. I feel I’m the best, so this is a new day.

“He’s a good player. He might be better. I don’t know. I don’t know how to judge who’s better. It’s not like everyone was taken off their teams for a year and all the role players had to show what they got, so you don’t know who is as important to their team. There’s no secret he’s a good player.”

In an interview with TNT on Wednesday, Artest said: “Roy is probably the best player I’ve played against; to me he is the best shooting guard. Not on defense now, defense is kind of suspect. He’s the best player I’ve played against.”