Canadian whod been playing the game for less than a decade

The sun will soon set on Metta World Peaces career as a professional basketball player. The former All-Star, formerly known as Ron Artest, spent the 2014-15 season out of the NBA before returning to the Los Angeles Lakers as a rarely used reserve.World Peace, 37, remains focused on helping the Lakers however he can, but he also plans to be ready for the future after retiring as an NBA player.Thats part of the reason World Peace was one of several NBA players who starred in The 5th Quarter, a mockumentary series about fictional sports stories available on the streaming video site go90.com. World Peace co-wrote the episode in which he starred, helping come up with a fictional story about a relationship with a vision-impaired boy that inspired his name change.World Peace discussed his interests in acting, coaching and more in a recent conversation with ESPN.com.Tell me about your experience filming The 5th Quarter and working with producer OBB Pictures.Metta World Peace: It was a great opportunity to get back into acting and pursue my career in acting and entertainment. The 5th Quarter was an opportunity because it was a huge platform with go90. I thought it was a really good opportunity just for me to be on the big screen and get closer to the thing Ive always been interested in doing, which is feature films and sitcoms and stuff.Did you enjoy doing comedy?MWP: Comedy, drama, the genre doesnt matter. For me, as long as Im having fun, thats what is important. Comedy is great. People get a chance to laugh, and I love when people laugh.You mentioned acting aspirations. Is this something you want to do full time when you finish up with basketball?MWP: Not full time, but I want to do a lot of it, though. If I need a month to shoot a movie, I can do that. Its all about the opportunities that are presented. I dont look at it as full time. I look at it as fun.What interests you about acting?MWP: Its an easy decision to want to be an actor. Any childs dream is to be on TV. Now that Im older, its something that still interests me. ... Ill do any role. It doesnt really matter. As long as the production is good and the writing is good, Im in.I understand youve also kind of dipped your toe in the coaching waters. Are you going to be the first coach/actor in the history of the NBA?MWP: Well, hmmm. I dont know, because I havent quit playing. Maybe there might be a coach out there right now who gets there before me, so Im not sure. But I definitely want to get into coaching one day.What makes you think coaching is a career path that would be a good fit for you?MWP: When you get a chance to be around something that youre going to watch on TV anyway, I mean, thats just a great opportunity. Im going to watch basketball regardless of whether I coach or watch it on TV. Same thing with boxing and same thing with football. When you get a chance to be up and close to it, when you get a chance to contribute, thats just whats really fun about it.Are you interested in coaching at the NBA level? Ive heard that you might actually want to coach high school ball.MWP: I did high schools [in 2014-15]. I was the assistant coach at Palisades High School [outside of Los Angeles], boys and girls. We actually won a championship. It really dont matter what level, but I definitely want to get into it. Preferably the ultimate goal is to be a professional head coach one day.Do you feel as if youre making the transition into coaching right now with your role with the Lakers?MWP: Not really. I dont like to jump the gun too much. I like to stay in the moment. Im just making sure Im ready to play. Im not thinking about coaching right now. Im just thinking about staying ready.Whats it like to play for a head coach who is younger than you and who came into the league when you were already established? You had four seasons of experience when Luke Walton was drafted.MWP: Its good. Luke had a nice career, a long career, won two championships. With that being said, I think that he transitioned well. He was a coach as a player anyway, so it only made sense for him to coach.The Lakers are winning more than a lot of people anticipated they would this early in the rebuilding process. Why do you think Walton has been able to reach guys like DAngelo Russell and some other young guys on that roster?MWP: A lot of the guys who said the Lakers were not going to win, those guys have never been champions. They never played. Luke is a champion. If youve never been a champion, you dont know what it takes. Luke knows what it takes. Thats why a lot of the guys that are saying the Lakers wont do anything, they dont really understand. Luke knows what it takes to win.What makes him successful as a head coach?MWP: His will and his heart. A lot of people dont have that will to get him over the top. Luke is constantly teaching. Were always getting better every single day. I just want to learn more and more. Luke is teaching me a lot also. ... Im still learning about cutting, Im learning about timing. Its been great for me to learn from such a great coach like Luke. Hes definitely going to be in the Hall of Fame. I can see him in the Hall of Fame, absolutely, one day.You mentioned there might be a guy who beats you to the coach/actor category. Luke Walton seems like a pretty cool dude, and hes there in Hollywood. Do you think he has acting potential?MWP: Youd have to ask him. I dont even know if he wants to do Hollywood. I know hes really focused on coaching.What about Rick Carlisle? You played for him in Indiana. Could you see maybe Carlisle teaming up with Jim Carrey?MWP: I dont think Rick Carlisle is into acting. Hes into coaching. Rick Carlisle is an Xs and Os guy, but hes the type to tell jokes when nobody else wants to tell jokes. Or maybe everybody else wants to tell jokes, and hes not ready to tell jokes. But I definitely dont think hes into acting. Fake Shoes For Sale . McPhee said that Ovechkins father Mikhail is in stable condition after having the surgery this week and is no longer in intensive care. "Weve told him to stay as long as necessary with your dad," he said. 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Heres where the problem with reintroducing golf into the Olympic Games started: The powers that be who saw the benefits of the sports return after 112 years away -- from the innocence of growing the game globally to the self-indulgence of attempting to infuse the industry financially -- informally surveyed the games elite players about which format would best suit their tastes.Not the most creative bunch, the players answered that theyd like a 72-hole stroke-play format that sounds exactly like almost every other tournament on the schedule. Once it was approved by the IOC, there was no going back.But letting players pick such a common format meant that Olympic golf instantly felt less special than it should have. It felt like just another important tourney in a summer swimming with them, only this one would be contested at a brand-new, faraway venue with no money at stake. Go ahead and try to get your favorite multimillionaire to do a weeks worth of pro bono work and see how that goes over.Little by little, the players publicly recited the right words while privately questioning their own motives. Rickie Fowler might have said it best last year when asked about his Olympic goals: It would be a dream come true [that] I havent ever dreamed of.Unlike swimmers or runners or gymnasts -- athletes whod worked their entire lives to compete in the pinnacle of their sports -- golfers were not raised with this mentality. No, theyd worked to earn a green jacket or a Claret Jug someday, not a gold medal.All of which is why, in a game of honor between the ropes, these players were suddenly seeking loopholes.Use the excuse that its a crowded schedule and the Olympics are an unnecessary detour from their overall goals, and theyll be criticized for a me-first attitude. Explain that competing in another no-money event (in addition to the Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup) is unfair, and theyll be ripped for greediness. Suggest that playing once per year for ones country should be enough, and theyll be castigated for a lack of patriotism. Contend that traveling to a country with an increasingly unstable government is a poor personal choice, and theyll be tsk-tsked for eschewing private resort accommodations.And then along came the Zika virus.It became the perfect get-out-of-jail-free card for professional golfers. Medical experts have insisted that there is minimal risk of contracting the virus in Rio de Janeiro during the Olympic fortnight, but its impossible to denounce a players decision to skip the tournament over concerns on the long-term welfare of his family.On Tuesday, Australias Jason Day became the latest elite-level player to withdraw his name from Olympic consideration (well, until a few hours later, when Irelands Shane Lowry also removed his hat from the ring). In a statement, Day listed his reason for pulling out as concern over transmission of Zika. For a player with a young famiily who might want to have more children in the future, thats a legitimate worry, no matter how low the odds of contracting the virus.ddddddddddddEven those without young families are given a free pass. Northern Irelands Rory McIlroy withdrew last week, citing the same concern. It shouldnt matter that McIlroy isnt married and doesnt have children; he might want to begin that process in the near future, and nobody else should tell him to risk that for the chance at a gold medal.The truth, though, is that Zika has become an all-purpose excuse. Whether the virus is 99 percent of a players real reason for skipping the Games or whether that number is really much lower, it provides a handy cover for all concerns -- the unstable local government, the tightly packed schedule, the no-money tournament right in the middle of the summer.Dont believe that? Think of it this way: If there were a slight chance of contracting the virus in Augusta, Georgia, every April, the Masters wouldnt suffer from nearly as high a withdrawal rate as the Olympics.Even if golfs inclusion in the Olympics is novel, the fact that its best players are eschewing the festivities isnt. The same thing also happened back in 1904, the last time the sport featured in the Games.The entries for the Olympic championship were rather disappointing, particularly so in those from the East, wrote Crafts W. Higgins in The Golfers Magazine of the event played at Glen Echo Country Club, just outside of St. Louis. The known apathy of New Yorkers for any Western event should have been taken into consideration.As a result, the gold medal was captured by George S. Lyon, a 46-year-old Canadian whod been playing the game for less than a decade, had a gnarly case of hay fever and spent his working days as an insurance salesman. Though history wont repeat itself to that extent this summer, the known apathy of potential competitors should have been taken into consideration.It all stems from the format -- while it was hardly a death knell for Olympic golf, it was the catalyst that started the chain reaction that led to so many top players failing to buy into the concept.Now the dominoes are continuing to fall. With each withdrawal, the event loses more luster; the focus lingers more on those who arent competing than those who remain committed. The initial intention was that golfs return to the Olympics would shine a brighter spotlight on the worlds best players, helping to grow the game globally. So far, that isnt happening.Theres still time, though. The IOC is already committed to bringing golf back for the 2020 Summer Games in Japan. The first order of business for golfs powers that be should be making the competition feel more special. Maybe then, the dominoes will start to fall in the right direction. ' ' '