Metta World Peace & Cut Chemist

Bullseye with Jesse Thorn

NPR

Society & Culture

4.7 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 4 June 2018

⏱️ 70 minutes

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Summary

This week, we've got a real treat for you: Metta World Peace! Even for a former NBA All Star and Champion, Metta has a big personality. When he played he had a reputation for hard defense and an unmatched intensity on the court. When it worked, it made him passionate, tough and nearly impossible to get past. But when didn't, things went south easily. He'd play dirty, get into dustups on the court. But World Peace - who was born Ron Artest - is up front about his flaws. And, in recent years, he's become a powerful advocate for mental health care. It's made him one of the most fascinating people in basketball. And it's also part of the reason his new book "No Malice: My Life in Basketball" is so compelling. He talks with Jesse about the new book - his highs, his lows, his childhood growing up in an enormous housing project in Queens. Plus, the time he met Kobe Bryant in a shower. We also have the song that changed Cut Chemist's life, and a deep, touching outshot on the life of Ed Roberts, a pioneering leader in the disability rights movement.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Bullseye with Jesse Thorn is a production of MaximumFun.org and is distributed by NPR.
0:13.3	It's Bullseye. I'm Jesse Thorn. Met a world piece. The NBA All-Star has kind of a reputation.
0:20.3	He's a sort of player who leaves it all on the court. In the prime of his career, he'd
0:25.0	play 48 minutes. He'd drive the lane. He'd play tough defense. He'd get tossed from
0:29.0	games all the time. It was a double-edged sword. Coaches loved his passion, but sometimes
0:34.8	it could get out of hand. He spent hundreds of hours working on that, even since he's
0:41.0	retired, doing therapy, meditating, taking medication. But part of the struggle is he's
0:47.8	always been like that. Like when I was a kid, I remember I remember throwing a chair at
0:52.7	a referee. I was in the eighth grade and somebody followed me. He didn't call it. We were
0:58.2	losing. I was so mad. I threw the chair at it. He was a police officer, by the way. Then
1:04.9	I kicked out of CYO. I could never play again. I've been suspended every year. I was in
1:10.1	the school, by the way. I think I said that in my book. I was suspended every single year.
1:14.0	Pre-school nursery all the way up to high school. It's Bullseye.
1:20.0	This week, my conversation with Metta World Peace, formerly known as Ron Artest. We're
1:32.1	going to cover a lot of ground in this one. The highs and lows of his career, the fights,
1:36.1	the championships, plus the time he met Kobe Bryant at the NBA Finals, while Kobe was
1:42.0	literally taking a shower. I remember him being so mad. The funny thing is, and he turns
1:48.3	around. He sees me. He's like, he almost like laugh probably. What are you doing here?
1:53.8	How are you in this shower? We'll also talk about his childhood. Matt is from New York.
2:00.1	He grew up in Queen's Bridge, the biggest public housing complex in the country, which was
2:04.4	hard for a lot of reasons as you'd expect, especially when you're trying to find a place
2:08.4	to practice. Sometimes I will walk away from the neighborhood, 45th
	...

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