Ron Artest Explains Metta World Peace Name Change On PTI (VIDEO)
Finally, an explanation! Ron Artest explained why he is planning on changing his name to Metta World Peace on Wednesday's Pardon The Interruption.
The Los Angeles Lakers forward said he had to give credit to Chad Ochocinco, who changed his name from Chad Johnson in 2008. He talked about how he had been thinking of a new name for three years and he wanted it to be inspirational.
"At first, I wanted it to be One Love. But people were like, 'no that's kind of corny'" he said. "We needed a cool first name. I was going to leave my name as Ron at the beginning. But I needed a cool first name so we came up with Metta."
Artest said he liked "Metta" because it had meaning to it and it was inspired by Buddhism. According to Artest, "Metta" means "friendship, loving, kindness, and togetherness."
He also said he's not forcing people to call him by his new name and that his teammates can call him anything.
Scroll down to watch the explanation.
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First Posted: 06/30/11 08:49 AM ET Updated: 08/30/11 06:12 AM ET