Metta World Peace might just be one of the more eccentric personalities to have ever stepped foot on an NBA court. World Peace recently made an appearance on Podcast P with Paul George, where he was asked to confirm a rumor about him drinking Hennessy at halftime during his career.
“It’s not anything where I would want to recommend or encourage but just being honest, yeah sometimes I would just go,” World Peace said. “We were losing a lot and I was going through a lot at the time but it’s super unacceptable at the same time.
“Deserves a suspension if anybody think they wanna try to do something wild, they should be suspended,” World Peace continued. “Yeah, I was tripping, I would just walk up the tunnel and just go to the little spot right there.”
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I suppose it isn’t too surprising that a teenager resorted to drinking a little bit as his team kept losing. World Peace had been selected with the 16th pick of the 1999 NBA Draft by the Chicago Bulls and wins were very hard to come by in his early years in the league. The Bulls won 17 games in his first season and then just 15 in his second.
World Peace claimed, though, that he only drank once or twice and hilariously added he would be willing to pay a fine for it now. Paul George asked how he played after drinking and the 44-year-old stated he played better once he stopped drinking, which is to be expected.
Metta World Peace Was In Awe Of A 15-Year-Old LeBron James
During this episode, Metta was also asked about a pickup game that he attended which featured a 15-year-old LeBron James and a 38-year-old Michael Jordan. World Peace stated he was stunned seeing a young LeBron put on a show in front of Jordan.
“Everybody knew who he was. He was already famous. I’m like, I want to see what he got. He was cooking. He was 15 or 16 posting, getting to the basket and I’m like, ‘This is going to be a huge issue,’ you know, and for sure it was.”
“When I saw that, it motivated me. I’m like, ‘I got to go to work.’ He coming into the league cooking. I was not like that when I was 15. … He could have gone pro right then honestly.”
That was quite the statement about James being good enough to enter the NBA when he was 15 years old. I think that might have been a bit much even for him, though.
World Peace certainly worked on his craft after witnessing James put on a clinic. The Bulls traded him to the Indiana Pacers in 2002 and he would win DPOY in 2004 with the franchise. World Peace was one of the best defenders in the league in the mid and late-2000s and NBA insider Brian Windhorst even claimed that he physically intimidated LeBron.
That seemed like a bit of a stretch and the man himself believed that wasn’t the case. Metta disputed the claim that James was physically intimidated by him and admitted he dominated most of their meetings. He was a great defender, but I don’t think anyone has really intimidated LeBron.
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