Ron Artest Explains Name Change

For those of you wondering about the details of the “Ron Artest” to “Metta World Peace” switch, here you go. Via the L.A. Times: “Amid these increasingly difficult times of conflict and strife, I set out Friday night in search of world peace. On a stage at the Hollywood Improv, I found him. ‘I changed my name because I got tired of Ron Artest, he’s a [expletive],’ said Metta World Peace. ‘And when fans get mad at me, they can’t say, ‘I hate World Peace.” Wanting to give World Peace a chance, I met the Lakers forward in his first public appearance since he petitioned to legally change his name earlier this summer. We shook hands and I called him Ron. I didn’t use his new first name because, frankly, I had no idea which part was his first name. ‘World Peace is going on the back of my jersey, so Metta is my first name,’ he said. ‘It’s Buddhist, but I’m Baptist.’ Metta is a state of loving-kindness, but the dude has yet to make it official with the state of California, so until his mid-August hearing, he’s still Ron Artest.”