Best New Names for Metta World Peace If He Leaves LA Lakers

Four summers ago, Metta World Peace signed a five-year, $34 million contract to play for the Los Angeles Lakers. Of course, back then he still went by Ron Artest.

It’s been a steep decline for World Peace since arriving in Los Angeles. In his last four seasons prior to donning the purple and gold, he posted PERs of 15.2, 18.5, 18.8 and 15.6. That’s two seasons of league-average production and two seasons of playing like a borderline All-Star.

In four years with the Lakers, though, he’s been dreadful, posting PERs of 12.1, 11.2, 11.0 and 12.5 respectively. According to that metric, World Peace has no business being an NBA starter.

World Peace has the ability to opt out of the final year of his contract—which no doubt the Lakers brass all secretly hope he does – but I don’t think even a man who tried to fight an entire arena and legally changed his name to Metta World Peace would be crazy enough to walk away from $7.7 million in guaranteed money.

If the Lakers want to rid themselves of MWP, they would either have to find a sucker organization willing to take him on (fat chance of that, unless he’s a throw-in as an unofficial trade tax in a potential Dwight Howard sign-and-trade), or they can use their amnesty provision to simply waive him (though they would still foot the bill for his entire 2013-14 salary).

Just in case World Peace does hit the road, here are a few potential monikers for the former Ron Artest to go by.

Begin Slideshow

...

About the Author