In a way that only Metta World Peace can, the kooky forward perfectly summed up the significance of Jason Collins‘ historic announcement on Monday.
After Collins, a 12-year NBA veteran, came out publicly to become the first known gay male athlete actively playing in a major American professional league, World Peace offered his thoughts. The gist was that World Peace supports Collins, but the message’s content was a bit … different.
“Whether it’s a free country or not, you should be free to act as you want to do, as long as it’s not violent, no matter what it is,” World Peace told Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News. “I came here in a Cookie Monster shirt because I wanted to, and I was going to wear the pants, but I thought you guys were going to judge me. I was going to wear the hat, too, but I thought you guys would judge me. I didn’t want Mitch [Kupchak] to judge me. So that’s why I didn’t wear the hat and the pants. But I should’ve wore it. You should be free to do and act how you want to act.”
So, yeah.
This is scary to admit, but World Peace might actually have the wisest take on this whole situation. The lesson of Collins’ coming out is to be who you are, whether you are gay or like to wear Cookie Monster clothing. It’s so Metta.
