Metta World Peace: 'Everybody's soft,' calls NBA 'a bunch of babies'
He hasn't yet locked in a guarantee that he'll be on the roster for the 2015-16 season. But for entertainment's sake, here's hoping that Metta World Peace is a member of the Los Angeles Lakers on opening night -- because a quote from World Peace is something to behold.
In a sitdown with Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times, World Peace said that the NBA was rougher when he entered the league and that today's game is "for kids" and "not really a man's game," thanks in part to over-protective parents who complain to AAU coaches and referees:
"Sometimes I wish those parents would just stay home, don't come to the game, and now translated, these same AAU kids whose parents came to the game, 'That's a foul.' These kids are in the NBA. So now we have a problem. You've got a bunch of babies professionally around the world." [...]
"It's no longer a man's game," he said. "It's a baby's game. There's softies everywhere. Everybody's soft. Nobody's hard no more. So, you just deal with it, you adjust and that's it."
Yep, World Peace went full "Get off my lawn!" to the NBA's youngsters.
It's pretty common for players to talk wistfully about how the game was different when they played, but it's rarer that a current player gets a chance to reminisce about a simpler time in his career. But World Peace is an old man by NBA standards; his rookie season tipped off 16 years ago this month.
One of the few current players who could confirm or deny World Peace's view of the league is Kobe Bryant, who's definitely not soft. Of course, World Peace didn't throw his Lakers teammates under the bus. In fact, he called second-year Lakers forward Julius Randle "a man," saying that Randle's ceiling "is as high as destiny."
It's not entirely clear what that means, exactly, but it's a very World Peace thing to say.
