Lloyd Benard Free wasn't the first athlete to change his name — with Muhammad Ali and Kareem Abdul-Jabaar beating him to it. However, the scoring machine's name change going from Lloyd to World B. Free in 1981 was quite a shock for most.
Fast forward 30 years, and the NBA's most notorious shock artist is following in Free's footsteps. According to TMZ.com, Ron Artest is filing papers to change his name to "Metta World Peace."
According to the report, "Peace" will now be the name on the back of Artest's jersey.
Metta is Buddhist for loving, kindness or compassion. Three words definitely used to describe Artest — or should we say, Peace.
