For his entire career, his entire life perhaps – whether he was Ron Artest from Queensbridge or Metta World Peace out in L.A. – the desire has been the same.
Fit in. Be liked. Be one of the guys. Get out on the basketball court and win every last battle, be it a stray rebound or NBA title.
It's been a tortured process always, filled with flare-ups big and small, with suspensions minor and memorable. It's always been the same, just when you think you can count on the guy, he does something to prove you can't.
"The NBA suspended World Peace on Tuesday" is a headline that will cause laughs for everyone who doesn't deep down feel for the man in the middle. It's seven games this time for M.W.P., a pittance compared to the 86 he missed for charging into the stands in Auburn Hills, Mich., in 2004, looking to pummel whoever threw a beer at him.
This one hurts plenty though because he's 32 now and supposed to be past this nonsense. He's embraced (publicly even) psychotherapy. He's talked such a good game. He even changed his name. And it hurts because it'll cost the Los Angeles Lakers, cost them big time.
They could easily wind up in a brutal series with, say, the Dallas Mavericks or Memphis Grizzlies and never make it to the second round, never get their erratic forward back. Even then, it'll be back to square one with M.W.P., a guy trying to prove to his teammates he can be trusted when the truth is he probably can't.
"This is him," said Fran Fraschilla, the ESPN college broadcaster who coached Artest at St. John's. "You go back to when I first met him, 14 or 15 years old at La Salle Academy in New York, and his greatest strength has always been his biggest weakness – that true competitive edge.
"He is an over-the-top competitor. It's what made him the player he is and what's gotten him in trouble."
Fraschilla was like every other coach, all of the other mentors who tried to corral that passion. "I thought I could control him because back then I was crazy," Fraschilla said. "With New York kids like him, you had to show them you had no fear, that you weren't afraid of them. And I wasn't.
"But in the end, he just can't control himself."
"But in the end, he just can't control himself."
That has to be terrifying for the Lakers. Suspensions haven't gotten World Peace to think before he acts. Fines haven't done it. Phil Jackson couldn't reach him. Mike Brown doesn't stand a chance. Nothing has gotten through enough that in a tense moment when he's about to act out, he pulls back.
Not national shame or heckling crowds or true internal pain for his actions. Metta World Peace was suspended seven games for elbowing James Harden.
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