Can you accept it? I'm not from where you're from. I love where I'm from. I had a mother and father up to the age of Then they separated, and things started to go south for me emotionally. In our neighborhood, there was all sorts of things going on: drugs, violence, fighting, all type of things like that.
That became normal. It was fucked up, but we'll move on. No kid should have to go through that. So when you ask, "Is there a misunderstanding? You've just got to accept where we're from. Adam Silver recently spoke about how he hears all the time from NBA players, how they're unhappy these days. It feels like the NBA has been really progressive with those issues, but I'm curious how much you felt there might have been a stigma when you were playing. I would love to go back and check every name who wrote a story and then see the problems they had.
Did they get divorced? What did they go through? Do they have criminal records? I remember when people used to call me crazy, I got tired of worrying about it. I just didn't care anymore. They're not going to say it to my face.
Back in those days, I would just say whatever was on my mind, so I would just tell the media person to f-off. In , when I thanked my psychologist on television, it was still a stigma at that time, too, but I didn't care. People be going through things. The superhero had help.
The superhero thanked a psychologist. View Iframe URL. I remember people made a big deal about that when that happened. How much of that noise did you hear when people were calling you crazy? Luckily, when I would hear it, I couldn't contact each person and say "fuck you," so I just let it slide.
Sometimes it did. I would say it showed when I was talking to the media, and I would say things or act out. People were like, "Why is Ron acting like that? He don't act like that. You got everybody attacking you from so many different angles, and not only that, you're going through your own shit. There's a moment in the documentary where you talk about how, when you made it to the NBA, it magnified your own inner turmoil.
Anything I was thinking or any characteristic I had, good or bad, it magnified it. It was spiraling out of control. Back in those days, you think alcohol or marijuana can help. Instead of having an occasional drink, you're doing it as a therapeutic thing. If you're drinking, thinking that's going to solve a problem, you're making it 20 times worse.
For me, getting my first check, it highlighted how I was really feeling. It was spent on things to suppress certain feelings. Going out, clubbing, drinking. At what point did you take to counseling? Did you find it helpful immediately, or was that something you had to warm up to over time? I was 13 when I first did counseling.
My whole family was going to counseling then. When I was 13, my apartment burned down. There was about 14 of us, maybe 15, maybe somebody else. We was in a three- or two-bedroom. Then when our apartment burned down, we had no place to stay for a little bit, so everybody was struggling.
We had nothing. Then we stayed in a shelter for a couple of days—everybody was scattered. In two weeks, housing got us an apartment and said, "Listen, we got a one-bedroom for you.
Fifteen of you? All of us. It was fun as kids. And then about a month into that—maybe two months—they found a double apartment. We got a big apartment. Five bedrooms, it was much better. There's not a lot of double apartments in Queensbridge. At that age, there was a lot of that stuff happening—and my parents separated at that age—so I went to go see counseling, free service on the 40 side of 10th Street.
It was tough going into that building, because people knew on the second floor of that building was where the therapist was. Sometimes people would make fun of you. At 13 years old, that's not easy. You're trying to hide, you walk into the building trying to make sure nobody sees you.
How did your apartment burn down? In my room, we had this crazy electrical wire out. They fixed it sometimes, but then, for a couple of years, they didn't fix it. It just caught fire. Sometimes we'd put a light bulb [there], and you gotta make sure you don't hit the wires because it'd spark. One day it just caught fire. Were you in there? Nah, my brother was in there, but he left.
My cat died in the fire, but nobody was in the fire. Were you ever worried that the work you were doing in counseling would at all take away from your competitiveness, or the chip on your shoulder that you played with? Not really, I never thought about it. I was getting in a lot of trouble in Chicago [after I was drafted by the Bulls]. I was doing crazy shit.
But I couldn't do it. The first time I took the medicine, it made me feel really awkward, and I never took it again. They were like, "Did you take your medicine today.
I just threw that shit in the toilet, man. I ain't taking that shit. I couldn't deal with it. When I was diagnosed later, it was depression. Then they go back, and they open up the wounds, and then close all the wounds and shit. What do you mean? They talk to you and say "How far back can you remember? What can you remember? There was a lot of stuff going on, but as a kid you don't know until you get older and you start to see stuff.
At 40 years old, you're not thinking about any arguing or fighting in the household. But that shit can stick with you. You get pinched when you're four years old you're gonna move.
Next time somebody go like that, you're going to be like, "Don't touch me. Somebody could be in the hood and ready to let their gun just go. Why would you shoot someone for no reason? Some people don't know why. At least I had the funds to figure out why. Not everybody has a lot of opportunities, parents in counseling. It's all expensive. What was your first breakthrough in that exploration to figure out why? Ironically, World Peace turned out to be the person who hated World Peace.
He recalls being embarrassed taking off his warm-ups because people would see the name. He lasted three seasons stateside as Metta World Peace before accepting an offer to play in China and creating more confusion. Metta Sandiford-Artest can change his name, but not his history. His NBA rap sheet includes 86 technical fouls, 24 flagrant fouls and 11 ejections.
Three of those 11 ejections came in playoff games. So, I guess that you can say that World Peace is over. You can follow this author on Twitter at RadRivas. Cookie banner We use cookies and other tracking technologies to improve your browsing experience on our site, show personalized content and targeted ads, analyze site traffic, and understand where our audiences come from. By choosing I Accept , you consent to our use of cookies and other tracking technologies.
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