What’s In A New Name?

Ron Artest recently filed papers to officially change his name to Metta World Peace and as usual the media has tons to say about it. Some said it was just Ron Ron being Ron; he was doing it as a grab for attention, while others believed he was sincere about in his actions and saw it as a symbolic gesture. My take on it is why should I care. He didn’t change his name to anything offensive like “I’ll Kill You”. I don’t get the big deal and why it’s necessary to take shots at a guy who outside of a couple of years during his career has been pretty much a good dude. Yes the malice at the palace will be something that will always follow him but it should be a chapter of his life, not his whole book. He won the Citizenship Award last season, which should have been proof that Ron isn’t crazy or odd but a guy that had a mistake or two in his past. People have criticized Ron for having a reality show during the off season saying he’s not focused 100% on basketball. Do you lob these same criticisms at Steve Nash or other players who have other interests? Ron gets a bad rap, since people won’t let go of his past they don’t give him a fair shot in the future. While others search for ways to hate on him he’ll be content on meeting a guy named World Peace.