Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What led Metta World Peace to change his name and focus on positivity?
Kings Network.
I'm looking forward to this one. This is one of the most interesting characters to come across the sports landscape over the last 20 years. Metta Sandiford-Artest, used to be Metta World Peace, used to be Ron Artest. Thank you for this session of South Beach Sessions, West Coast style. Really nice to see you in person.
Yeah, absolutely. It's good to be here. You know, I changed my name to Metta World Peace in 2011. Then I got remarried after my first marriage.
Chapter 2: How did Metta manage his anger and what role did therapy play?
I took my wife's last name, but I still go by Metta World Peace. Okay, all right. My wife's last name was Sanderford, and obviously my other last name was Artesso. She was like, you know, women should have the right to have their last names be taken. I said, you're right, I agree.
My friend Ricky Williams did the same thing. He did Eric Myron. So I didn't introduce you incorrectly, though, did I? No. You did, but, you know, I would rather met a world peace.
Chapter 3: What was the impact of the 'Malice at the Palace' incident on Metta's life?
You're a man of many names, though.
I know.
For a while. Forgive me for forgetting what the panda name was when you were in China. But you changed your name legally there, too. Did you not?
No, that was just like a story that kind of took its own legs. People just made up stuff. The pandas from actually my daughter loves pandas. So she loves pandas so much.
Chapter 4: What are Metta's proudest moments in his basketball career?
I said, you know what? I want to be around my kids more. So I'm always trying to find a reason to be around them. So I launched a brand called The Panda's Friend because my daughter loves pandas. And when the story came out, people said I changed my name to Panda's Friend.
Well, but this is the thing with you. There are so many stories out there about you.
Lots of stories.
So let's start here. What do you like about your reputation and what don't you like about your reputation?
Chapter 5: How does Metta give back to his community after retiring from basketball?
People who haven't met you who are just surmising things based on what they think.
I think the great thing about my reputation is being from Queensbridge. You know, the greatest rapper of all time, Nas, is from Queensbridge. Mobb Deep, hip-hop from MC Shan, Roxanne, Shante, myself. And we're also the biggest federal housing project in America. And when you come from the biggest federal housing project in America, you learn a lot.
you know um you're under more scrutiny a lot of things is happening in these communities when you can make it out because there's so many traps uh violence weapons drugs and when you can navigate your way through that that says a lot that's the biggest that's what i love about my career that i was able about my life that i was able to navigate that now on the court people got a chance to see an emotional side they got a chance to see that real street side
But when people don't really know me, they know me from playing basketball. They know me from being in survival mode on the court. But nobody really knows me.
Chapter 6: What challenges did Metta face during his transition to life after basketball?
I got a letter from Princeton. And I say that because in college, you get those visits, five visits, right? Every college is sending you letters. You know, my first year, I was averaging a 60. That's a D, my freshman year, a 60. I turned it around my senior, last semester, my senior year, a 95 average. Right. People don't really know me. My first major was architecture.
People don't really know me.
Chapter 7: What are Metta's plans for the future and his announcement for 2028?
Right. You see what I'm saying? So they know me from the court, but they really coaches that coach me. General managers that general manage me. Fans like you don't really know me. You know, I'm a philanthropist. Right. I'm trying to do big things in that field. And I say that because I want people to get to know me even more. A business owner as well, many businesses.
Chapter 8: How does Metta view the relationship between mental health and athletics?
And, yeah, when you think about the businesses I'm involved in, one of our companies is called BuildOps.com. They just recently raised out a billion valuation. We have a little bit of investors there. Easy Care Link, a nursing staffing platform that we invested in. Buttercloth, a couple other companies. But the thing is this. In 1999, when we came into the league,
We didn't have what they have now. You know, our whole thing was like ball till you fall, boom, boom, boom, get the bling, all that stuff. That was our life unless you was like a Michael Jordan or Shaq, you had your head on your shoulders. The majority of us athletes back then did not. We wasn't thinking about generational wealth, infrastructure planning. We wasn't thinking like that back then.
We had to catch up. So there were so many different things that we've been through as athletes. Being a business owner today, I never thought in a million years that I would be doing what I'm doing now.
Well, when you say, though, that people don't really know you, it's at least in part because you're not the same person now that you were 20 years ago. You may have some of the same core things, but we all saw your growth. We saw you winning the championship. And the first thing you're doing is bringing attention to mental health by saying, I want to thank.
specifically my therapist for all the help that I've gotten in this realm like you over the years we've seen the tough guy become something that was willing publicly to be more vulnerable to be softer and to talk about things that usually athletes don't talk about or hadn't before you
Yeah, we all have a perception, right? So as a tough guy, things that made me tough, I wish I didn't have to go through. Like playing basketball in Far Rockaway as a 12-year-old in Hamels Projects and at the free throw line, my friend getting hit over the head with an old E40-ounce bottle. because we were playing hard in someone else's neighborhood.
Or to having to travel to a game somewhere and having to put the ratchets in your bag just to make sure that nothing goes down. The stuff that made me tough, that people loved, is not what I would want for myself or my son or my children. I wish I did not have to be tough. I wish I could have just been vulnerable the whole time, but I had to. Because of these different circumstances in the city.
You know, when you come from the biggest federal housing project in America, yeah, you got some protection because you're a baller. But at the same time, you become friends with different people. And when things happen to your friends, you got to make a decision now. You in or you out? How are you going to navigate that?
So the things that made me tough and fearless is things I wish I did not have to go through.
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