The Los Angeles Lakers announced Monday that they have hired former player Metta World Peace to be the player development coach of their G-League affiliate South Bay Lakers, a move that was made by general manager Nick Mazzella.
World Peace played 17 NBA season after being drafted with the 16th overall pick in 1999 by the Chicago Bulls, with six of those seasons coming with the Lakers.
He was a member of the 2009-10 Lakers NBA Championship team, and was a player in the organization as recent as last season. The four-time All-Defensive team selection posted career averages of 13.2 points, 4.5 rebounds and 2.7 assists with the Bulls, Pacers, Kings, Rockets, Knicks and Lakers.
World Peace joins head coach Coby Karl and Assistant Coaches Brian Walsh, Isaiah Fox, Dane Johnson and Sean Nolen to finalize South Bay’s coaching staff for the 2017-18 season. South Bay opens training camp on Tuesday, October 24 from 2-4 p.m. at the UCLA Health Training Center.
While he would have liked to continue his NBA career with the aspiration of playing 20 seasons, no NBA team gave World Peace a shot. He has expressed an interest in coaching for quite some time now though, so the move makes complete sense.
One thing also to note, the Lakers current head coach and former teammate of World Peace’s, Luke Walton, began his coaching career as a player development coach in the G-League.