Metta World Peace

Metta World Peace has changed his name many times, as many of us are aware. His birth name was Ronald William Artest, Jr. He's gone by the name of Ron Artest as well, and to this day, many people still call him Artest. He was brought up in the projects of Queens, New York. Metta World Peace (MWP) played in some high profile summer league basketball tournaments, where he left his stamp, letting the world know that he was indeed, a great basketball player. He gained a lot of attention through playing in those summer leagues. MWP is known to be quite the aggressive basketball player, playing with an immense amount of passion, aggression, and enthusiasm. He's the type of player that will do whatever it takes to get in the game, and put out his best effort.

Metta World Peace started out in the NBA playing for the Chicago Bulls for about 2 1/2 years. Soon after, MWP was traded to the Indiana Pacers, where his game definitely stepped up a notch. He stayed with the Pacers for about a year, where he started getting aggressive, showing that he had "that side to him." He ended up getting right in the middle of an altercation between fans and players during a game against the Detroit Pistons. It was because of that altercation, that that game was stopped, with less than one minute to go, and MWP was one of the players that got suspended for the rest of that season, including all playoff games. This made Metta World Peace the player that had the longest suspension for an on-court, fiery incident in all of NBA history. He missed so many games, and it really crushed him that he couldn't play.

MWP wanted to be traded from the Pacers, which left his teammates feeling betrayed, angry, and very disappointed. That sure didn't help matters for MWP. At this point, Metta wanted to play for any other team that would take him, as long as he could leave the Pacers. Shortly after, he got what he wanted and was traded to the Sacramento Kings midseason. Sacramento ended up going on a 14 to 5 run, which was their best run of the entire season. Obviously, Metta stepped up his game again, and helped the team to succeed. 

Metta soon got traded to the Houston Rockets. Metta stayed with the Houston Rockets for about one year, before heading to the Los Angeles Lakers. It's somewhere around this time that Metta World Peace changed his name to just that, "Metta World Peace," who was formerly known as Ron Artest until this point. Again, he's changed his name many times, and I believe he's changes it again recently to what I believe is," The Pandas Friend." Yep, you heard that right, stop hating, and just go along with it. 

The Los Angeles Lakers fans seemed to have a very love hate relationship with MWP. As you might probably agree (or not), Metta is a great basketball player, but he can be one heck of an intense and passionate player as well. However, seeing his aggression has never been truly accepted or loved by everyone, and understandably so. During MWP's time with the Lakers, many of the Lakers players (including Metta) acquired injuries on the court, which definitely affected their game in a bad way, ending with Metta being waived from the Lakers via the amnesty clause to help with their salary cap. 

After Metta spend some time playing for the Lakers (or not playing, because of his injury), he signed with the New York Knicks for two years, and then he returned back to the Lakers, and is now currently still playing for the Los Angeles Lakers. Metta World Peace had some more aggression and issues on the court during a game against the San Antonio Spurs with a flagrant foul to Manu Ginobili, and he got suspended during game two of the first round series. MWP seemed to have many issues with flagrant fouls and whatnot with many opponents, and while playing on many different teams. He's definitely a tough cookie, but I hear he's a really nice guy in person. 

MWP went on, struggling to get along with certain teammates, despite whatever team he's been on. But, at the same time, he's also loved and adored for being such an awesome player, and such a great addition to a team. He's definitely one of the more fun players to watch on the court. He can take a boring game where people are yawning, players are missing their shots, and nothing spectacular is happening, to an exciting, intense, and passionate place, in which you can't take your eyes off of him. He's one of the most fun and exciting NBA players to watch on the court.