Ron Artest, the NBA-star-turned-coach from Queens who renamed himself Metta World Peace[1], has every reason to be less than sane, a new documentary shows.
“Quiet Storm: The Ron Artest Story” premieres on Showtime on May 31 during Mental Health Awareness Month. World Peace has been upfront about his own mental health.
Growing up in the Queensbridge Houses, he watched friends get gunned down during the crack wars of the ’80s.
After his Lakers clinched the 2010 championship, World Peace said, “I’d like to thank my psychiatrist.”
He was referring to Dr. Santhi Periasamy, who says in the doc: “Anxiety and depressive symptoms are often responses to encountering stress and trauma throughout childhood.”
World Peace said his friend Lloyd Newton was stabbed to death with a broken-off table leg when a brawl broke out at a 1991 YMCA-sponsored basketball tournament.
Rapper Capone, who grew up with World Peace, recalls how World Peace and his father practiced for hours, not letting nearby gunfire interrupt.
“Nothing was going to stop Big Ron from making Ron Ron the best ball player he could be, the strongest he could be, and when them shots rang off, ‘Cool.’ They knew they weren’t getting shot at. [If] they catch a stray bullet, go to the hospital. Get taped up and come back out to the court.”
World Peace tells of how he tried to sell crack once, but was so scared that he forgot to collect the money and never did it again.
Producers also tracked down a repentant John Green, the fan who threw a Diet Coke at World Peace during the “Malice at the Palace” brawl at a 2004 Pacers-Pistons game. World Peace ran into the stands to punch Green, sparking