Ex-Lakers star Metta World Peace, whose real name is Ron Artest, played professional basketball for 18 years. He was an NBA All-Star and won a world championship with the Los Angeles Lakers. Besides the NBA, he played for the New York Knicks, the Houston Rockets, the Sacramento Kings, the Indiana Pacers, and the Chicago Bulls. 

He additionally played for the Sichuan Blue Whales in the Chinese Basketball Association and Pallacanestro Cantu in Italy. After what was likely the most memorable fight in sports history, Artest was banned for the rest of the 2004–05 season for fighting with fans in the seats in “The Malice at the Palace.” Artest didn’t play in the Pacers’ last 73 regular-season games or 13 playoff games.

Ron Artest, when he was 34 years old had been in the NBA for 14 seasons. He was facing the end of his career back in 2013. He’s already well past the best time of his career when he was the best wing defender in the game. Additionally, he had previously played for five NBA teams at that time. Yet, he was not widely famous as the friendliest person in the league. 

Recently, in an interview, he expressed why he wanted to create history with the Detroit Pistons. 

“I tried to go to Detroit because I wanted to create another story. I felt like winning in Detroit would have just been crazy. These people don’t understand storytelling. They didn’t even get it.”

That makes sense. Either way, it was a fair assumption that only a few teams would want to hire him. World Peace had two or three years left as a useful bench player before he left basketball to become the world’s first producer, and children’s book author, which made him a lot of money. 

At that point, World Peace was not supposed to be starting anywhere, and he probably had a hard time finding work once his time was up. In 2013, the idea of ending his job where he wanted to must be going through his mind.

After winning a Los Angeles Lakers title and other NBA awards, Artest played well for several NBA teams and then retired in 2017. 

After talking about his struggles with anxiety and sadness in public, World Peace became a well-known mental health supporter and was named a “Mental Health Hero.” 

People don’t usually talk about professional players’ mental health problems, but he received praise for publicly praising his doctor after hitting the game-winning shot for the Lakers in 2010. Then, he held a raffle for his title ring to raise money for groups that help poor areas with mental health issues. He also spoke in favor of the Mental Health in Schools Act in Congress.

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The ex-Lakers Star once criticized Kobe Bryant

Metta World Peace worked for many teams. He played for the Rockets after playing for the Kings and the Pacers.

Sometime during a game against the Lakers, he used bad language to try to get inside Kobe’s head. Kobe stated to him that he wasn’t ready for him, which made him do something.

Kobe laughed in a fake way. So, he asked Artest if he had also become a stand-up comic, which led to a bunch of plays that ruined MWP completely. After that, Artest joined the Lakers in 2009 and helped Kobe win the 2010 NBA title. 

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