From the NBA… to the high school gymnasium?
When the New York Knicks bought out Metta World Peace’s contract in February, they probably never saw this one coming. The free agent and former NBA champ, 34, has unofficially signed on as assistant coach of the Palisades High girls’ basketball team, the program’s head coach, Torino Johnson, told local Los Angeles-area newspaper the Palisadian Post.
World Peace, known until 2011 as Ron Artest, grew up in Queens but played on the Los Angeles Lakers from 2009 to 2013, and raised his family primarily on the West Coast. He has reportedly been involved with the Palisades High program since his daughter, Sadie, played for Johnson her freshman year.
Though World Peace hasn’t officially announced any plans for retirement and could potentially be picked up by another NBA team, Johnson seems confident he will have a star-studded addition to his high school squad.
“We still have to go through the paperwork process, but Metta will be a member of our 2015 coaching staff,” Johnson told the Palisadian. “We’ve been talking about it for years and when I mentioned how crazy it would be for him to coach at Pali his exact words were ‘Give me a title!'”
“Metta’s going to be heavy into the strategic portion of our practices,” he added. “He’ll be someone you see around.”
