The NBA just hasn’t been the same since its premier resident misanthrope Metta World Peace was waived by the Knicks two years ago and exiled to China and Italy (where he was mostly known for introducing the world to his panda-themed tennis shoes and accruing five fouls in under a minute).
But now it appears that the team he helped win the 2010 championship (and who amnestied him a few years later) might bring him back into the fold…at least temporarily. According to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports, the enigmatic, small forward has been working out daily at the Lakers’ practice facility and is closing in on a one-year deal to return to the team.
Yahoo Sources: Metta World Peace has begun to work out daily at Lakers’ facility, inching closer to a return to franchise on one-year deal.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) September 9, 2015
Theoretically, he should help shore up the Lakers’ porous defense, although the 35-year-old World Peace is little more than a shadow of the lock-down defender he once was when he was a perennial Defensive Player of the Year candidate.
It also seems a little curious that the Lakers would want to introduce a presence like his to such a young and inexperienced team, as his volatility and unpredictability have been the source of so much turmoil throughout his checkered yet ultimately successful career in the NBA. But those are precisely the qualities that always made him so compelling and entertaining. What remains to be seen is whether he’s still capable of making a positive impact on a team.
(via Yahoo Sports)
