Metta World Peace To Coach Girls High School Team In Los Angeles
Metta World Peace is headed back to high school.
The NBA forward, who recently spent time with the Los Angeles Lakers and New York Knicks, is set to join the coaching staff of one of the top high school in the Los Angeles area, Palisades High.
World Peace will be an assistant coach for the girls team at Palisades, head coach Torino Johnson noted. World Peace’s daughter played for Johnson four years ago.
“He’ll be heavily involved in our program,” Johnson said, according to the Orange County Register. “We keep having, it’s an ongoing dialogue, but it’s all positive. There’s no out. The only purpose for this is to be positive and to be impactful — and this is of his choosing.”
The 34-year-old World Peace played just 29 games for the Knicks last season, but doesn’t appear to be giving up on his NBA career just yet. Johnson noted that the coaching duties at Palisades will coincide with Metta’s time in the NBA.
In addition 2 his NBA duties @MettaWorldPeace will be a member of the 2015 Girls Basketball coaching staff. #NBA #CIF #MentalHealthMatters
— Torino K Johnson (@coachtorino) June 12, 2014
Johnson’s hashtag, MentalHealthMatters, refers to an interest both he and Metta World Peace share in addressing mental health issues.
“Metta’s going to be heavy into the strategic portion of our practices,” Johnson told the Palisadian-Post. “He’ll be someone you’ll see around. We’re both into mental health awareness and I’ll be really excited to see him in the gym.”
He will be joining the staff of a team that won the L.A. City Section Division 2 title in 2012 and finished 21-12 last season.
“No one else that I know of in high school basketball has this opportunity, where they have a current NBA veteran on their coaching staff who can divulge that expertise,” Johnson told the Register. “It’s kind of all hands on deck for us and we’re very fortunate and excited about him wanting to be a presence in our program.”
Metta World Peace did not issue a comment on his move to the high school coaching ranks.
