Metta World Peace laments what he feels could have been a Hall of Fame career
Metta World Peace has spent most of his career being scoffed at, even by his admirers. Save for the months that followed his role in 2004 Malice in the Palace (which were preceded by a few weeks of jokes as he attempted to take time off to promote a band he was managing) the former Ron Artest has spent the bulk of his NBA as a much-respected and earnest fellow that also happens to conjure up a rotating set of punchlines.
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He was the kid that applied for a gig at an electronics store to receive an employee discount. He was the pup that, according to MWP, drank cognac during halftime of games – while possibly under the legal imbibing age. He was the trade bait. He was the force that was going to ruin the Lakers’ chemistry. He was the guy that changed his number in honor of an obscure bit of musical trivia. The dude that changed his name. He was the buyout candidate. The vagabond. The old man.
World Peace, now 36, feels his destiny should have included a better tagline. From a feature by Baxter Holmes at ESPN Los Angeles:
“I look at myself in a very high regard,” he said. “I can see what could’ve been there.”
What’s that?
“I could’ve been in the Hall of Fame,” he said.
World Peace doesn’t believe that will happen, though, not after a career that saw him bounce around six different teams, often for one not-so-pleasant reason or another.
“If I would’ve been a more stable player …” he said.
Sigh. Yeah, he’s probably right.
It’s likely that this generation is probably unaware that Metta World Peace was massively recruited as a high school player and AAU legend, and considered a future top five NBA draft pick prior to his somewhat underwhelming (relative to his high school and AAU play) career at St. John’s. At 19 he was drafted by Chicago with a middling first round pick that Phoenix needlessly handed the Bulls in return for helping the Suns overpay free agent Luc Longley, prior to settling into the anonymity and endless losing that dogged the post-Michael Jordan Bulls.
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It was in Chicago that Metta found an identity, however. Pegged as a teenager to be the NBA’s next great all-around small forward, the future MWP put an emphasis on defense while sacrificing shot attempts along the way. Though he was averaging over 24 points per game in the seven contests preceding the Malice and topped 20 again on a so-so Sacramento Kings team in 2008, this habit stuck with MWP all the way through the 2009 sign-and-trade deal that sent him to the defending champion Lakers.
You kind of get the feeling that World Peace wants everyone to know what he’s given up:
“I had to play on other people’s teams so my average went down, my stats went down, less All-Stars, less All-Defensive teams,” he said.
“Once I came here from Houston … I wasn’t getting the credit that I felt people should have gave me for sacrificing,” he said. “My [scoring] average went down.”
From the Los Angeles Daily News:
He also argued he “wasn’t getting the credit I felt I should have been getting” during his first Lakers stint.
“The Lakers were great,” World Peace said. “I’m talking about the outside and national [media].”
“National media” is a pretty broad swipe, but for someone that was sitting amongst endless rows of national media as World Peace gave his legendary post-championship press conference in 2010, I can tell you that an entire room of some of the best and brightest to cover this league (plus this dummy) was charmed by his turnaround, well aware of his contributions to the Lakers championship, and well aware of the points he’d given up.
Sacrificing shots for Kobe won’t be the reason Metta World Peace won’t make the Hall of Fame. He was 30 during that championship year when that scoring averaged dipped from 17 to 11 per game, and the decline had already set in. World Peace told the press on Tuesday, in the wake of his start and 12-point performance in a loss to the Suns on Monday, that he went to China (where he averaged 19 points per game) and Italy following his 2014 release from the Knicks just to prove that he could still act as an offensive focal point.
The issue here is that Metta was never the smoothest scorer, though his post-up game and cerebral cuts (partially performed in an era that bullied you into oblivion) helped him act as what MWP calls a “shootaround plan”-presence for years. The opened-up NBA that he returned to in 2005, following his suspension following the Detroit melee, only increased his chances to pile up the points.
This is what makes Metta World Peace a borderline Hall of Famer. A 19-points per game three-year run (with a whole lot of broken plays and isolation endeavors) in Sacramento. A 17-point per game season in Houston. Nearly 200 games (spread out over nearly four full years!) at 16.5 a night with the Pacers. Plus all that defense.
He got his licks in. You still get the feeling, though, that Metta World Peace never wanted to be that kind of Hall of Famer. A little more flash, and a little less “you’ve got Kobe/Pierce/T-Mac/Carter tonight, Ron.”
Still, this doesn’t take away from the turnaround. In a lot of ways, once you count that still-there defense and his ability to communicate as his teammates work with their heads turned, Metta World Peace has been Los Angeles’ best pound-for-pound player thus far. That will change once Bryant finds his shot and the youngsters start to get going, but it’s a nice bit of realization for a player that was not only paid by the New York Knicks to go away 21 months ago, but banned by the NBA for 75 games some 11 years ago.
That incident will probably keep Metta World Peace out of the Hall of Fame, and it remains debatable that even a clean NBA ledger would have pushed MWP in.
That’s just fine. As it was in 1999, it’s still nice to see this guy playing, and it’s still good to hear him gush over his own significant gifts.
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Kelly Dwyer is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KDonhoops
