page_title: Metta Sandiford-Artest
section_title: Los Angeles Lakers (2009–2013)
hierarchical_section_title: Metta Sandiford-Artest / Professional career / Los Angeles Lakers (2009–2013)
caption_attribution_description: Corey Maggette and Ron Artest, November 2009
context_page_description: Metta Sandiford-Artest is an American former professional basketball player. He was known as Ron Artest before legally changing his name to Metta World Peace in 2011 and later to Metta Sandiford-Artest in May 2020.
  Sandiford-Artest played college basketball for the St. John's Red Storm. He played for six teams in the NBA and gained a reputation as one of the league's premier defenders. He won the NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award in 2004, when he was also named an NBA All-Star and earned All-NBA honors. He won an NBA championship in 2010 as a member of the Los Angeles Lakers.
  Sandiford-Artest was a participant in several controversial on-court incidents, most notably the Malice at the Palace, and is known for his sometimes eccentric and outspoken behavior. During the 2017–18 season, Sandiford-Artest was a player development coach for the South Bay Lakers of the NBA G League.
context_section_description: In July 2009, the Los Angeles Lakers signed Artest to a five-year deal worth about $33 million. Artest chose the number 37 jersey, which he said was in honor of Michael Jackson. Jackson's Thriller album was at No. 1 on the charts for 37 straight weeks.
  In Game 5 of the 2010 Western Conference Finals, Artest hit a game-winning shot at the buzzer after grabbing a last second offensive rebound. He scored 25 points against the Phoenix Suns in Game 6 and went to the NBA Finals for the first time in his career. In the finals, the Lakers defeated the Boston Celtics, four games to three. Artest scored 20 points in the clincher and sank the team's last field goal – a three-pointer late in the fourth quarter – to virtually seal the victory. Afterwards, Lakers head coach Phil Jackson called Artest the most valuable player of Game 7 against the Celtics. He won his first championship ring with the Lakers.
  For the 2010–2011 season, Artest switched back to number 15, his college number at St. John's and the first number he wore in his NBA career.
  On April 26, 2011, Artest won the NBA's J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award.
  Artest changed his name to Metta World Peace during the offseason. He came into training camp for the 2011–12 season out of shape. Consequently, new Lakers coach Mike Brown moved World Peace to a reserve role with reduced playing time. World Peace lamented that Brown's coaching style placed too much emphasis on statistics.
  On April 22, 2012, in a game against the Oklahoma City Thunder, World Peace elbowed James Harden in the head as he was celebrating a dunk. He received a flagrant foul 2 and was immediately ejected. Harden was later found to have suffered a concussion. After the game, World Peace apologized and stated that the elbow was "unintentional." On April 24, 2012, World Peace was suspended for seven games, meaning he would miss the Lakers' season finale game against the Sacramento Kings as well as the first few games of the playoffs.
  After a 1–4 start to the 2012–13 season, the Lakers fired Brown as head coach and hired Mike D'Antoni. On December 18, 2012, in a win against the Philadelphia 76ers, he grabbed a career high 16 rebounds to add to his 19 points. On January 11, 2013, he suffered a right leg injury against the Thunder that would hamper him for two months. Around the same time, he also had an injury to his right arm that made it difficult to bend. His health worsened to the point where D'Antoni moved him off the perimeter on defense and had him guard power forwards instead. By mid-March, he was able to guard the perimeter again. On March 25, against the Golden State Warriors, World Peace tore the lateral meniscus in his left knee. He underwent surgery that was originally estimated to sideline him for six weeks. Despite the estimates, he returned 12 days after his surgery. In his absence, D'Antoni was using a reduced seven-man rotation with Kobe Bryant playing close to all 48 minutes each game. World Peace wanted to reduce his teammates' workload, if even for a few minutes, as the Lakers fought to qualify for the playoffs.  The Lakers qualified for the playoffs as the seventh seed, but were swept 4–0 by San Antonio in the first round.  Due to the Lakers' other injuries, World Peace played in Game 3 in spite of running with discomfort after having fluid drained from a cyst behind his surgically repaired left knee. He missed the final game of the series, and later admitted he came back too soon. For the season, he averaged his most points (12.4) since 2008–09, and shot his highest percentage (.404) since 2009–10. Still, ESPN wrote those numbers indicated that "the 33-year-old is clearly on the decline".
  On July 11, 2013, after four seasons with the Lakers, the team waived World Peace via the amnesty clause to gain relief from the salary cap.
caption: Artest with Corey Maggette of Golden State in 2009.
exif: {"Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D90", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Ver.1.00", "Image DateTime": "2009:11:28 21:20:59", "Image ExifOffset": "208", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 2, 0, 0]", "Image GPSInfo": "762", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/160", "EXIF FNumber": "28/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Unidentified", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "1600", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2009:11:28 21:20:59", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2009:11:28 21:20:59", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "2", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "5", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, auto mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "105", "EXIF SubSecTime": "00", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "00", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "00", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "683", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "795", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "157", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "High gain up", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}