BLOG: Artest Name Change, That's Just Ron Being Ron!
Or should I say "That's just Ron being Metta World Peace?" Ron Artest of the L.A. Lakers has filed the paperwork to officially change his name to Metta World Peace. I'm not sure this is the craziest thing Artest has ever done, but I wanted to take a look back at a few things and let you decide.
Ron Artest once got a ticket for driving a race car down the street, he was cited and fined for the incident. He also wrote an awful tribute song to Michael Jackson after his death and proceeded to change his basketball number to 37 for one season. The reason for 37, because Michael Jackson's album Thriller spent 37 weeks at #1 on the pop charts. He has appeared on Jimmy Kimmel's show in nothing but his underwear. Ron Artest has won a championship with the Lakers. Nothing strange about that until he thanks his psychiatrists in the post game and decides to sell his championship ring and donate the money to people who need psychiatric help. We have to mention the brawl against Detroit, everyone remembers the crazy incident in which Ron got a year long suspension.
My 2 favorite Artest moments come from HBO Real Sports program. The first is Ron saying he would like to buy up a housing development in Queensbridge right in the middle of the projects and turn it into a mansion. I guess he wanted to live like Tony Montana. The all time greatest story has to do with Ron getting a part time job in the off season at…. CIRCUIT CITY. That's right, Ron got a part time job at Circuit City in the off season so he could get a 15% discount on Cd's. This is a man that had already made millions of dollars. So to save roughly around $2 a CD, he took up a part time job.
Personally I love Ron Artest, he is a weird cat, but he is always entertaining. If he wants to change his name to Metta World Peace then more power to him. Somewhere Lloyd Bernard Free is smiling…. Better known as World B. Free after his name change.
