Over the course of his career, we've known Metta World Peace to be one of the toughest defenders to ever step on a basketball court. He's used several different monikers, starting off his playing career as Ron Artest, his given name, and changing it to Metta World Peace before moving to China and allegedly changing it again to Panda Friend. This week, he spoke about his eccentric history of name changes with Danny Green on the baller's podcast Inside the Green Room with Danny Green, also touching on his friendship with Kobe Bryant and his championship legacy with the Lakers.
During the sit-down talk, Metta revealed to the world that he has officially dropped World Peace from his name. Now, he goes by a combination of his wife's last name and his original surname.
"My name now is 'Metta Sandiford-Artest.' I actually took my wife's last and added it to mine," said the 40-year-old. He notes that he was pretty embarrassed to hop on the court for the first time after switching his name to Metta World Peace from Ron Artest, hesitating to remove his warm-up gear and show off the backside of his jersey. He also tells Green that he never actually legally adopted the Panda Friend moniker, but he just went with the reports saying he did.
Check out the name talk at the 41:40 spot below.