The drink left a stain on his NBA jersey, but in the handful of minutes that followed the former Ron Artest did enough to leave a stain on his reputation that took years to overcome.
Filled with rage because of a drink thrown at him while he was laying on the scorer’s table, the former Indiana Pacers forward stormed into the stands in Auburn Hills, Mich., on Nov. 19, 2004, and punched a fan. His actions helped ignite an all-out brawl that resulted in multiple fans and Pacers players being charged with assault and battery. The NBA handed Artest a record 86-game suspension without pay for his role in what became known as the “Malice at the Palace.”
More than 12 years have passed, and plenty has changed for a man who now goes by the name Metta World Peace. He has earned acclaim for his continuous help with mental health issues. After becoming a fan favorite while helping the Lakers win an NBA title in 2010, the 37-year-old is on this season’s roster largely to help mentor the team’s many young players.
Detroit, which once represented a dark part of his past, is now a place World Peace visits with the goal of trying to brighten its future.
“I always get excited about going back to Detroit,” World Peace said.
Years ago, World Peace never thought he would utter those words. Instead of worrying about negative fan backlash, however, he is consumed with his ongoing efforts to help those in need. He plans to speak with students at Noble Elementary-Middle School on Wednesday afternoon before the Lakers (18-36) face the Detroit Pistons (24-28) at the Palace in what will be the 17-year NBA veteran’s final game at the soon-to-be-vacated arena.
Last fall, World Peace also visited Osborn High, where he spoke to players before and after a 12-team basketball tournament for elementary and middle school students. World Peace also plans to assist local mental health charities through his foundation, Xcel University.
It’s not just about making amends with a city that saw him at his angriest, most volatile moment, though. World Peace stressed his motives are more substantial.
“I’m cool with the streets. I’m cool with the ‘hood,” World Peace said. “Helping the ‘hood, that’s what I’m focused on. I’m not focused on getting love.”
His comfort level wasn’t always like this. The season after the brawl, he became upset with reports the Pacers planned to trade him, so he demanded to be dealt. He said the eventual trade to Sacramento Kings in the 2005-06 made him aware of something else. He did not feel comfortable ever returning to the Palace in a Pacers uniform.
“It was too much for me and it was overwhelming,” World Peace said. “There’s 20,000 people in the building. But it felt like the whole city was against me at that time.”
Odell Rowan, a coach for several recreational youth football and basketball teams based around Osborn High, said those sentiments have changed.
“The city views Ron Artest as a champion. They see him as someone who is willing to do whatever it takes to be a champion and overcome any obstacle,” Rowan said. “I don’t think there’s any bad feelings anymore about what happened at the Palace. People have moved past that.”
World Peace had distanced himself from the Palace stigma by the time he joined the Lakers during the 2009-10 season. By then, he found it humorous when he still heard relatively subdued jeers shouted at him during subsequent returns to the Palace. But rather than allowing time to heal those self-inflicted wounds, World Peace took the lead in altering his relationship with Detroit.
It all began when he met John Ealy, a promoter and manager for hip-hop artists known as “John Drama.” As someone who frequently held shows in the Detroit area, Ealy facilitated World Peace’s hope to visit what he called local “high-risk schools” since “they’re the ones that need help the most.”
So Ealy set up World Peace with a visit last September at Osborn High, which resides in the so-called “Red Zone” because of the poverty and crime in the surrounding area. World Peace, who grew up in Queens, N.Y., remarked he had “never seen so many abandoned houses in my life.”
“In those type of neighborhoods, I have to talk about more than just basketball,” World Peace said. “When you look at the violence and drugs, that environment is flooded in neighborhoods. As a kid, if you have the opportunity to sell drugs and commit a crime, if it’s going to help you eat for that moment, you’ll do it.”
So when World Peace grabbed the microphone, he addressed issues he hopes will help Osborn’s students reverse that trend.
He harped on the need to take education seriously and maintaining good grades. He warned students about the dangers of allowing a negative environment to shape them and scolded a few who did not listen intently. Though he did not bring up the brawl or his mental health issues, World Peace discussed his own upbringing, which involved living with divorced parents and losing friends to incarceration. World Peace then reminded them of his success story.
World Peace ended the session chatting and posing for pictures without any security or entourage present.
“The hood respected him for that. He was just a regular guy. He was comfortable,” Ealy said. “When you see somebody who is willing to come to the hood who actually made it, it gives you that much more push and inspiration that you feel you can make it, too.”
World Peace plans to offer the same message to fourth- through eighth-grade students during this week’s visit to Noble. That sounded ideal to Athletic Director Carl Deadrick, who estimated that 95 percent of the school’s basketball players come from single-family homes without a father figure.
“They’ll identify with that immediately if he tells his story. A lot of these kids are living his story,” Deadrick said. “I’m sure he’ll able to identify with them with what they’re going through, especially the guys on my basketball team. That’s who I really want him to speak to. It’s so hard to get some of them to understand and focus.”
Meanwhile, World Peace is focused on ensuring his efforts to help Detroit continue after his NBA career. He plans to visit Osborn High again next fall. He hopes to schedule visits with local civic leaders about his mental health work, and is open to exploring other initiatives as well.
Regardless of how that goes, there are those in Detroit who believe World Peace has already done enough to help heal the scars that 2004 night left on the community.
“As long as he’s coming into the city to do something good, they’re more concerned about that,” Deadrick said. “If he gives back and continues to gives his time, that’s more than what some of the Pistons have done.”
Contact the writer: mmedina@scng.com
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