Metta World Peace: Michael Jordan was the only player who called me after Malice at the Palace

Metta World Peace: The last time I spoke to (Michael Jordan) was after the brawl. He was the only player who called me. He said, ‘Don’t worry, young fella, I’m gonna try to get you back.’ When he said that, I thought, ‘Wow, if MJ believes in me, I’ll be back.’ But not even Michael could fix things with David Stern. He was tough."

Source: YouTube

More on this storyline

Metta World Peace: "When the Rockets said they wouldn’t bring me back, I was surprised. I wanted to stay. Then my agent said the Lakers wanted to meet. Dr. Buss said, ‘We can’t pay you what you’re worth, but we’d love to have you.’ I didn’t care about the money. I just thought about Kobe, Phil, and Lamar—like this was my chance. The Bulls were my favorite team growing up, but now I was joining the Lakers, a team I admired. I felt like I had sabotaged my career, and now the basketball gods were giving me one more shot. -via YouTube / December 9, 2024

Metta World Peace: First I'm gonna talk about the game. When you talk about how great he was, rebounding, hustling, I think we had the same hustle, he had better rebounding, I probably had better scoring. My scoring came from a place of abusing my opponent. It was hustle. Dennis was rebounding, abusing his opponent of rebounding, but when you talk about 50/50 balls, who was going to get that ball, is going to be, Ron Artest, Dennis Rodman at that time, somebody going to get that 50/50 ball, and I think that's where the comparison was. In terms of personality, I think the passion obviously Dennis was more of a rock star than I was. He was a rock star, he was way beyond his time, people want to talk about LGBTQ support, but if you want to talk about the future, and acceptance, Dennis made it cool to be you. -via YouTube / November 13, 2024

Throughout NBA history, New York City natives have won a combined 62 championships, far surpassing any other city worldwide, according to HoopsHype’s research. However, 58 of these titles were secured in the 20th century, with only four in the 21st – courtesy of Brendan Haywood, Lamar Odom and Metta World Peace. That tells you all you need to know about New York’s decline as the actual basketball mecca. -via HoopsHype / October 5, 2024

With the exception of Derrick Rose on the young end (22 years old in 2011) and Michael Jordan on the older end (35 in 1998), most MVPs are won by players between the ages of 25-28. Antetokounmpo won his two at 24 and 25. “At this point in my career, I had the conversation with my brother, I was like, man, it’s crazy to me. I had just come to a realization that I might never win another MVP,” Antetokounmpo told Yahoo Sports. “I’m having better years than the years I won it. But hey, the league is improving, guys are playing very, very well.” -via Yahoo! Sports / December 6, 2024

Charles Barkley: Well, you know, I hate super teams because you're cheating. If they had told me back in my day they were going to hold it against me, I’d have said, 'Well, I want to go play with Michael Jordan, Bird, or Magic.' Like, yeah, if y'all are going to say I didn't win, and then let me know that after the fact? I’d be like, 'Wait, we could have teamed up and won?' Excuse me! But if you ask the guys—Bird and Magic—their legacy is against each other. Michael? I got my shot against Michael. Patrick got his shot against Michael. Karl got his shot against Michael. Ain’t no shame in losing to the greatest player ever. We got our shot, and it was hell of a game. You know, it's so funny. Sometimes people act like we got swept. I was like, 'Damn, Patrick and the Knicks had some Game 7s.' Reggie and the Pacers had some 7s. Karl and the Jazz went 6. When I played the Bulls in the championship, we went 6. -via YouTube / December 6, 2024

Penny Hardaway, who was on the Magic both years, explained on the 'Out The Mud' podcast what the difference between Jordan in 1995 and 1996 was. "We ain't gonna discredit that MJ wasn't at the top of his game, because how could you come from baseball and be at the top of your game? But MJ on the floor is MJ, right?" "In the beginning, MJ was like, 'We've been winning championships ever since the last few years that I played. I'm gonna come back and win the chip.' And he didn't. We beat him. That gave him extra motivation. Then he had the whole summer." "95' MJ was good. 96' MJ was ridiculous. He came back with a vengeance. Put the cape back on—the Superman, whatever you want to say—and he put the team on his back, and they went 72-10 and won the championship... You knew it was a difference because he had a whole summer to think about what had happened." -via Fade Away World / December 6, 2024

This article originally appeared on Hoops Hype: Metta World Peace: Michael Jordan was the only player who called me after Malice at the Palace