The man formerly known as Metta World Peace and Ron Artest had a highly memorable and decorated 18-year NBA career.
We all know about the time he beat the shit out of a beer-slinging Detroit Pistons fan, but he also admittedly liked to sip Hennessey during halftime as a member of the Chicago Bulls and not wear pants?
Ron Ron the Benevolent
Artest has been branded by some in the mainstream media as benevolently crazy. But since I don’t pay any mind to those jive clowns, I prefer “eccentrically himself.”
Eccentric because, well, Ron preferred to do things in his own unique way, such as not wear pants…ever. Like a 6 foot 7 toddler with a few million dollars to his name.
According to those working for the Houston Rockets organization during the 2008-09 season, Artest (going by Metta World Peace during those days), would routinely walk around unclothed in the nether regions.
In hotels, during team practices, Metta made his distaste for legwear abundantly known, and for a while, no one seemed to care…until they did.
Oh the Horror
The exact moment when people and more precisely then team owner Leslie Alexander began to care, was a couple of hours before Game 7 of the second round against the Lakers.
Metta missed the first two team buses – the ones designated for players, coaches, and team personnel headed to the Staples Center from the Rocket’s hotel.
Fortunately, he caught the third and final bus – the one reserved for business staff and sponsors being shuttled to their corporate suites, albeit without any pants.
**Need some pants? Check out these street casual styles, so you won’t have Ron Artest problems.**
These buttoned-down nerd types were treated to World Peace sprinting out of the hotel in just his boxer shorts🩳
Barely sticking his hand in the bus door before it took off and nudging over a guy in a suit to get to an empty window seat.
Witnessing all this was Les Alexander who happens to like pants and wasn’t impressed. So it’s no wonder the Rockets didn’t try to re-sign the former Metta World Peace in the offseason.
If you enjoyed this story, you may also like Luke Ridnour was once Traded Four Times in Six Days or Vanilla Gorillas Don’t Go to Class – Why Joel Pryzbilla Left the University of Minnesota
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