Los Angeles Lakers star Ron Artest is now Metta World Peace - NBA Update
Los Angeles Lakers eccentric small forward Ron Artest has finally been granted his wish to change his name to ‘Metta World Peace’. The name change was approved on Friday by the Los Angeles County Superior Court Commissioner.
The NBA superstar Artest had filed a request to change his identity three months back and the fans will now see a new name on the back of his jersey. While talking about his new identity on the E-News, the 31-year-old ‘Metta World
Peace’ was delighted with the transformation and said,
"Changing my name was meant to inspire and bring youth together all around the world. After this short delay, my tickets have been paid and I'm glad that it is now official.
His effort to change his name however was not as smooth as Ron would have wanted it to be.
Last month, when the first schedule hearing took place, the bid to alter his name was delayed when the court found out that the NBA player had some outstanding traffic tickets. The law suggests that change in identity cannot be
made unless or until the criminal charges or outstanding warrants are done away with.
In the following month or so, upon the successful payments of the traffic tickets, the court granted Artest’s request to be called as ‘Metta World Peace’.
Ron was not present at the hearing and his attorney Nahla Rajan represented her client in front of Commissioner Mathew George. Courtney Barnes, Ron’s publicist said on the occasion.
“[Rajan] walked up, the judge said, ‘We understand he wants to change his name and he wants to do so for personal reasons,’ and it was granted. That was it. It was that quick. As soon as we found out about it from the previous
hearing, once we were able to track down the ticket, it was immediately taken care of,” Barnes said while talking on how easy the approval came after clearing the outstanding traffic tickets.
According to Courtney Barnes, Artest had been contemplating the switch for many years. Finding a meaningful and inspirational first name took a lot of time in researching as Lakers’ forward finally came up with a Buddhist term
Metta which means friendliness and kindness towards others.
With the acquisition of a new name, Artest also declared that he is planning to wear No.70 in the next season, which is going to be his third switch in as many seasons with the Los Angeles Lakers.
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