To Ron Artest or Metta World Peace – Keep up the good work

This is something I wanted to write about earlier but I didn’t want these headlines to be more outrageous than the news of a lockout in the NBA.

Ron Artest wants to officially change his name to Metta World Peace. Yes. You read that right but I will say it again, Ron Artest wants to officially change his name to Metta World Peace. For possible reasons as to why he is doing this, read on. For what ‘Metta’ means Ron would like young people to find out by having to ‘read the dictionary.’

Los Angeles Lakers’ Small Forward Artest has done some pretty crazy things since he joined the NBA in 1999 but what could he have done that was crazier than this? Maybe, drinking Hennessey at half-time whilst he was playing for the Chicago Bulls? Or when he went running into the crowd to start a fight with a fan who threw an object at him when he was playing for the Indiana Pacers? An incident that caused him to be banned for 86 games and lose almost $7m in salary?

Well, for most people, I think changing his name to Metta World Peace tops them all.

Ron Artest will never be the type of sportsman or celebrity that will be happy to just go to work, pick up his millions of dollars, go home, enjoy the luxuries of his fortune and stay away from the public eye. He enjoys being famous too much. But I think Artest uses his celebrity status to his advantage to seek attention for himself, and now more than ever, Artest is also using his fame to help other people. This is why just days before the 2011 NBA draft, Artest choose this moment to tell the world he has decided to change his name.

If you trace back to before that night Artest ran into the crowd and had the altercation with the fan in 2004, he was the reigning NBA defensive player of the year and an All Star. He was certainly not a flashy player or a superstar but he was a very good basketball player with an exceptional ability to shut down the leagues best scorers, but he was without any potent offensive skills. Fans rarely talked about Artest and he rarely spoke to the media.

For Ron Artest the basketball player and the person, a lot has changed since the ‘Malice at the Palace’. He has learned to become a winner.

Ron Artest has played for three different NBA teams since his he left Indiana in 2006. Sacremento, Houston and his current side the LA Lakers. Artest has helped LA to win two NBA Championship titles and he has been named on the first and second all NBA defensive teams. Not too bad huh?

However, winning off the court is bigger than winning on the court and Artest has been winning off the court too in the past few years.

Artest has worked closely with charities that support people with mental health issues. In December 2010, Artest confirmed he would be donating some or all of his 2011-12 salary to mental health charities. More recently, he auctioned off his 2009-10 championship winning ring with all the proceeds going to various charities across America to help “put more psychologists, psychiatrists and therapists in schools”.

Finally, it was good to see the NBA recognise the good work Artest has been putting in off the court when he was award the 2011 J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award. This award is given to players for their ‘outstanding service and dedication to the community’.

Was that incident in Detroit the turning point in Ron Artest’s life and basketball career? Only he would know the answer to that question, but Artest is not the first or the last NBA player to turn his troubled career around. Neither was he the first to change his name (Lloyd Bernard Free changed his name to World B. Free in 1981). But for now let us embrace that the former immature half-time alcohol drinking fan fighter is trying to do good by himself and the NBA, despite the odd ejection from a game and a rap song!

Keep up the good work Ron or Metta.

Article courtesy of Michael Roberts.